Study in Contrasts
by yoyshaia-chan
Summary: Out every night, wild parties left right and centre, Ino is having the time of her life, providing you ignore her total non-relationship with her mum and the mounting feeling of desperation threatening to swallow her whole. Full summary inside. InoDei
1. Chapter 1

_**Full Summary:**_

_**Out every night, in with the cool crowd, wild parties left right and center, Ino is having the time of her life. That is, if you discount her miserable non-relationship with her mum, and the mounting feelings of desperation and insecurity that threaten to swallow her whole. Can anybody turn things around, and save Ino from herself? AU fic.**_

_**Pairings:**_

_**They will be here, but later. And I'm not gonna tell you in advance. Wait and see!**_

_**Disclaimer:**_

_**I do not own Naruto, this story was written for my own entertainment, not for profit.**_

_**Now that that's over and done with, enjoy the story!**_

**Study In Contrasts**

I looked around at all of the adults surrounding me, suspicion in their eyes.

Lowering my head, I allowed a small smirk to spread across my face. I walked slowly forwards, sensing rather than seeing the people subtly shift themselves out of my way. It wasn't my first trip to mum's office, they knew I wasn't here to say hi.

I stopped again, ever-so-slowly raising my head to look one of them in the eyes. I could see that they were a little surprised by my eyes; they do tend to unnerve people a little, but anyway, I was looking straight at this guy. About half a foot taller than me, and twice as, shall we say, _wide_. I took a half step toward him, went up on tiptoes so that my face was almost level with his.

The moron stood frozen, completely baffled. I suddenly narrowed my eyes, and yelled right in his face.

"BOO!"

He fell over backwards onto his _fat ass_ and I walked away grinning.

Mum was gonna do her nut.

/\/\/\/\

I got home and put my ipod straight into the dock/speaker system, selecting one of my favorite songs.

_I walk a lonely road, the only one that I have ever known_

_don't know where it goes, but it's home to me and I walk alone_

I fell back onto my bed with a sigh, kicked off my shoes and cranked the volume right up.

_I walk this empty street, on the boulevard of broken dreams_

_where the city sleeps, and I'm the only one and I walk alone_

Taking my long blond hair out of it's neat bun, I started to sing along, enjoying the feeling of merging with the music.

Then I was interrupted by a sound downstairs. Knocking at the door. I knew it wouldn't be mum (she always has her keys), so I paused the song and walked over to the window, opening it to see who it was this time.

I was greeted by barking, and the tattooed face of one of my best friends.

"Hey Kiba!" I yelled down at him. He looked up with an enormous grin (with Kiba, his grin is an almost permanent feature of his face, kind of like the red triangle tattoos on his cheeks. It's one of the many things I love about the guy).

"Hey, you coming out?"

I raised an eyebrow at him, "Come on. You've known me more than six years and you don't know the answer to that question?"

He laughed and gestured at his car, "If you're not in there in 15 minutes I'm leaving without you."

I slid my window shut and watched Kiba, with his dog Akamaru yapping at his heels as per usual, head for a shiny red convertible, parked about two houses down and on the other side of the road.

Fifteen minutes? Yeah right...

/\/\/\/\

Almost forty minutes later, I had showered, brushed my hair and put it into a high ponytail, with a section hanging down in front of my left eye, changed into a killer outfit, done my makeup (paying special attention to subtle eyeliner and mascara that would emphasize my bright cerulean eyes), ferreted out my mum's best pair of high heels and turned my mobile phone well and truly off.

I was ready to go.

I made my way over the road, to Kiba's car (I have no idea what sort of a car it was, but he was ridiculously proud of it so it had to be something good). He was reading some book, but he put it away when I slid casually into the passenger seat.

"Well, you sure took your time Ino," he was trying to sound annoyed, but it was obvious enough to anyone with half a brain that he didn't really care.

"It was your fault for only giving me fifteen minutes," I replied playfully, "you should know me better than that! Besides, it takes time to get myself this gorgeous."

He looked over, and I pouted sexily. He narrowed his eyes, as if trying to analyze my appearance for supposed gorgeousness. He shook his head seriously, "Sorry, looks like you wasted your time. You look even uglier than usual."

I burst out laughing, "Oh what-_ever_ dog breath. Come on, let's get moving."

He chuckled too as he put the car in gear, and started to carefully pull out of his parking space. People wouldn't normally guess it from seeing him but Kiba's a really good driver, and that's even when he isn't driving his "baby". He was like this even with his first car – a lump of scrap that amazed all around every time it actually managed to move. Not that he'd kept it long.

We drove in pretty companionable silence for about twenty minutes before I actually got round to asking where we were going.

"A party, of course. Where else is there to go on a Wednesday night?"

I rolled my eyes, "Sure, but whose? Someone we know?"

Kiba grinned mysteriously, and tapped the side of his nose with the index finger of his left hand.

"Wait and see, Ino. Wait and see."

I shrugged and leaned back in the seat, staring out of the window. "Let me know when we get there."

I watched the houses and shops flash by, and the sky getting steadily darker. I turned my phone on to check the time – almost seven o'clock, mum would be long home by now – then turned the mobile back off and stuck it back in my pocket. I turned my attention back to the window and smiled.

_One missed call already... she must be pissed off._

I don't know how long it took to get to the party but it must have been late by the time the car stopped; the sky was completely dark and the pavements were empty of "sensible adults".

Kiba pulled up smoothly into an empty space, "Sorry Ino, gotta walk a bit. This is a popular one. No spaces up by the house."

I grimaced at that; it was getting pretty cold out and I hadn't exactly dressed for the weather. Kiba saw my expression and laughed, "You have to suffer to be 'gorgeous', I take it."

I climbed out of the car and whacked him over the head. "Ow! Look, if it bothers you that much, you can borrow my jacket."

I shook my head, "Nah. I'm a Yamanaka, I'm tough, I can take it!" We both laughed at that – it was something we'd been saying since we were 10 and it brought back fond memories of dares and dangerous games. Of course, it brought back other memories too.

Looking at Kiba, I saw that his face had turned serious, and I knew he was thinking the same as me.

Akamaru barked from the backseat of the car, breaking the tension, and we smiled at each other. Kiba leaned in to talk to his dog, "Hey boy, I don't think you can come in here, but I'll come out to check on you every hour, so you won't get too bored, kay?"

Akamaru barked happily, and gave his master's hand a hearty lick as if to say, _seriously, I'll __be fine, quit worrying_. Kiba straightened up, and closed the door with a heavy thud. I touched his arm as he locked it,and he looked up, surprised.

"Kiba, you know I-" he cut me off with a grin.

"Ino, seriously, you _have_ to quit apologizing for that. We both forgave you ages ago. Right boy?" He looked through the window at Akamaru, who wagged his tail furiously and gave two firm barks, muted by the glass.

I tilted my head slightly, smiling. "Should I take that as a yes?" Kiba nodded and took my arm in his.

"Absolutely. Now let's get to this party – you're gonna freeze in a minute!"

The music was spilling out of the front door, even though it was mostly closed, and mingling with the cold night air. The drum beat vibrating through the pavement and making me feel the anticipation that you always get in the pit of your stomach before what you just _know_ is going to be a great night out.

We got to the front porch and were greeted by a broad, tough looking bouncer. He glared at us a little, but Kiba and I didn't even pause, marching straight through the door as if we lived there.

Once we were in, we high-fived each other gleefully. "Awesome," I said, "Now, correct me if I'm wrong but isn't this the infamous Uchiha mansion?"

Kiba couldn't keep the excitement out of his eyes: "Damn right it is."

I turned a slow circle, trying to take everything in. We were in a long, narrow corridor, with lots of doors leading off it at various points. Normally at a party, every inch of available space is crammed with dancing teens – all high on either the atmosphere, or a variety of chemicals. Most of them on a combination of the two – and the fact that this hallway was completely clear had to be either a testament to the Uchiha's security (not likely considering how easily we'd gotten in), or the sheer size of the rooms behind the mysterious doors.

Kiba came up to stand beside me, then abruptly grabbed my arm and headed for the door with the most noise coming from behind it. It opened on to an enormous lounge area, filled with people and music.

"Wow," Kiba was grinning wolfishly, "What a party..."

I nodded in agreement – it was pretty damn impressive, even by the usual standards of an Uchiha rave. Not that I knew anything from first hand experience, this was my first party at the notoriously crazy house.

A girl in a skirt even shorter than mine (it looked like it would make a better belt!) came up and stood right in front of Kiba.

"Hey," she said sweetly, "you wanna dance?"

Kiba looked at me, as if asking permission, and I laughed. "Go on!" He took her hand and led her off to where most of the dancing teens were gathered.

I breathed out slowly and meandered over to one of the large L-shaped sofas, deciding to try my hand at a bit of people-watching to pass the time. As everyone knows, the best parties don't really get started until people are too drunk to see straight. Nothing fun was going to happen for at least a couple of hours.

/\/\/\/\

Almost an hour later Kiba had danced with the girl he introduced as Kiyami twice before deciding that she wasn't his type, and I'd danced with him a couple of times as well as some random other guys. He wandered off to explore the house, and I got back to jumping around with the crowd.

All of a sudden, I spotted our "host", the one and only Sasuke Uchiha. I couldn't help but grin a little – the guy hadn't changed at all. Still a complete pretty boy. I could still remember the time in primary school I'd had a massive crush on the guy – well me along with almost every girl in the class! Including my once-upon-a-time best friend Sakura.

I didn't give myself time to think. I stood up and made my way over to where he was standing, stopped right in front of him and displayed my most friendly and winning smile.

"Hey Sasuke, long time no see!"

I saw him pause, and do a double-take as he took in my outfit. It was one of my better ones; A lilac top, clingy and slightly shiny with a low neckline. A very deep purple, almost black, skirt which ended about three inches above the knee. Four inch heels (not the tallest in the wardrobe, but high enough), in the same dark purple as the skirt. Sheer black tights, and a black leather jacket (currently over my shoulder). I was looking good.

He barely seemed affected by it though. "Yeah, it's been a while." He muttered, looking over my shoulder. I frowned, feeling slightly disappointed.

"Uh-huh. What've you been up to then? Anything interesting?"

No response. Literally zero.

I leaned in and tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention, "Hey Sasuke, is there anybody home? What-"

He suddenly pushed past me, scowling. I was shocked at first – I mean geez, I didn't know I was that repulsive! - but when I turned around I realized what was going on.

Two guys were squaring up to each other in the middle of the room – and it was obvious that they weren't about to have a nice friendly hug. The bigger one threw a heavy punch, catching the other guy right in the jaw. I laughed out loud, and joined in as a cheer went up.

Parties are always more fun when things get violent. Adds a whole other element of excitement to the mix.

The smaller guy had gotten up by this point, and – egged on by almost everyone yelling for a fight – was about to go for a punch of his own, when he was stopped dead.

By none other than Sasuke himself.

Everyone turned to see how the first guy would react, but he had both his arms held behind his back by Sasuke's older brother Itachi. There was silence. And I'm not exaggerating, I mean serious, middle-of-an-exam silence. Tense-movie-moment silence. You-could-honestly-hear-a-pin-drop silence. It was pretty weird, like everything froze for about three seconds.

Then Itachi spoke, "Enough. You're both leaving," and the spell was broken.

The Uchiha brothers bundled the two guys out (an impressive feat in Sasuke's case; the guy he was practically having to drag out of his house was a lot more heavily built than he was), and everyone else got back to enjoying the party.

I turned around, and there was Kiba at my elbow. "That was pretty wild, right?"

I grinned, "Too right! It's just a shame it didn't go further if you ask me, I'd have liked to see something get trashed."

Kiba laughed and checked his watch. "Well, it's about midnight now, it'll take forty minutes to get to your house, when d'you wanna head off?"

I considered for a moment. "What's the protocol here for crashing on the floor?"

He raised his eyebrows at me, "As far as I know, it's an option. Could be problematic with school tomorrow-"

"Unless they decided we had to wear uniform in the last nine hours, I'll be okay. We have transport, we never take books in anyway, I'm certainly not seeing a problem!"

He nodded slowly, "Yeah, fair enough, and what about your mum?"

I blinked. "What about her, Kiba? She's pretty much used to me staying out all night, how else am I supposed to make an impression?!"

There was a moment of silence, and I wondered if this suggestion was crossing a line.

"Look, Kibi (regressing to a childhood nickname that I knew would make him smile), if you don't want to then we don't have to, 'kay? I don't want you to get in trouble at home."

He smiled appreciatively at that. "Nah, I'm sure it'll be cool. D'you wanna go fetch the sleeping bag out of the boot?" He brought the key out of his pocket and dropped it into my hand.

"Back in a minute!" I threw over my shoulder, heading for the door.

The car seemed even further away now then it had when we arrived. I got to the boot and popped it open, looking around for the sleeping bag. Akamaru poked his head over the back seat, trying to find out what was going on.

"Hey boy," I gave him a quick scratch behind the ears, "Your master's so ultra-organized that he supposedly has a sleeping bag in here somewhere...." I trailed off, surveying the mess that was the boot of Kiba's car.

"Ok, forget the bit about being organized," I muttered. Akamaru was looking concerned. Or maybe I was just tipsier than I thought – I'm pretty sure animals don't do 'concerned'.

Although, Akamaru and Kiba did seem to be able to communicate. Maybe I could enlist his help somehow? "I don't suppose you know where he put the thing?" I asked, looking at the dog expectantly.

Akamaru barked, jumped the back seat and proceeded to dig through the piles of crap. After about two minutes, he emerged, dragging the tell-tale shiny blue material behind him.

"Nice one, Akamaru!" He wagged his tail modestly. "Buuuuut, there's only one. Has Kiba got a spare in there?" I poked through the rubbish a little more myself. It didn't look like I was going to have any luck, so I closed the boot again and turned back to the house.

"I'm sure we'll manage."

/\/\/\/\

"Look, mum, I'm fine, Ino's fine, there's no problem, we're just gonna sleep here, 'kay?"

I could hear Kiba trying to reassure his mum in the front room, even though I was still standing in the hallway. Kiba may be as big a party fan as the next teenager, but he has a really good relationship with his mum (and his dad and older sister for that matter), and he certainly wasn't about to do anything that would make her worry just for the sake of it.

Unlike me.

"Yeah, yeah I know. I'll make sure. Cool, see you tomorrow then. G'night."

I poked my head round the door, "Everything cool on the parental front?"

Kiba nodded, "Yep! Hey, cool, you found it!"

I dumped the sleeping bag at his feet, "Yeah, no thanks to your great boot-keeping skills. Your dog had to lend a paw."

Kiba laughed a little sheepishly, "Um, yeah, sorry 'bout that. But y'know, it's only about half twelve, the party won't be over for a while yet..."

I sighed, "Fine, I take the hint. I'll go put it with the coats."

It was almost four in the morning before people started leaving and/or settling down on the floor. Itachi came in, his younger brother trailing behind him, to see how many people had decided that they couldn't be bothered to drag themselves home. The answer was surprisingly few, there were only about nine people other than me and Kiba.

Itachi looked us over with a clinical eye, presumably analyzing the likelihood of us causing trouble in the next three and a half hours before most of us would have to leave for school.

"Are there likely to be any phone calls wondering where you guys are?" The elder Uchiha asked, not really sounding like he cared. Kiba answered for both of us,

"No worries, us two are covered." Both brothers nodded and, having had similar reassurances from the other 'guests', left us to it.

I looked at the sleeping bag, which Kiba was getting comfortable in. He waved me over, "Come on Ino, there's plenty of room in here!" I grinned and walked over.

"I can sleep on the sofa, if you'd prefer."

He looked at me with a mock horrified expression. "Like I'd do that to you!"

"Shuddup you two, people are trying to SLEEP!" came a hiss from the other side of the room. We giggled.

"Ok, we can share. But no funny business!" I said, poking his forehead.

"Would I ever?"

Another muffled giggle from the two of us. "Night Kibi."

"G'night Ini."


	2. Chapter 2

_**To anyone who had this story on alert, I am SO SORRY that it took so long! There were delays with the beta-ing, and then I was busy with mock exams, and then I sort of forgot that I was supposed to be uploading. I know, it's no excuse... Anyway, I hope you'll keep reading anyway! I intend to get into a routine of writing and uploading, or at the very least avoid such a long delay next time. Thank you! And enjoy!**_

_**Disclaimer:**_

_**I still don't own Naruto, and I'm still not making any money out of this story.**_

**Study In Contrasts**

I woke up the next morning, surprised to find I was quite comfortable. I couldn't move my arms though, Kiba was lying on one of them and the other was trapped between the two of us, so I had no idea what the time was.

I tried to move my head a little, hoping to see a clock or something, only to find that Kiba's chin was resting on top of my head. I was well and truly trapped. I couldn't help but let out a short laugh at that and I decided to give up on learning the time. I leaned my head on Kiba's chest, forget school, I was perfectly happy where I was thank-you-very-much!

I must have dozed off again since the next thing I knew Kiba was shifting slightly, tightening his arms around me, then letting go to stretch.

"Morning dozy," I said with a grin, "Sleep well?"

"Yeah thanks, like a log. How about you?"

I smiled, and stretched as best I could with my arms still trapped. "Same. Can you see the time from where you are?"

Kiba squinted around the room, "Er, yeah, looks like," he sighed "ten to nine. We're not even out of bed and we're late for school."

We both spent a moment trying to get out of the sleeping bag, only to find that with the position we'd got ourselves into during the night it was completely impossible to get to the zip.

"Well... this could get interesting," Kiba muttered, then we both started to laugh. Something about the inherent ridiculousness of the situation, combined with the fact that it was first thing in the morning and we were both feeling kind of silly.

"Do you think we'll have to be here all day?" I asked, still giggling,

Kiba joined in, "We might make the news: Two Teens Starve to Death in Sleeping Bag!"

"Who said anything about dying? I bet I could get out if I pulled your arm off or something."

"Oh sure, _that'll _help," he got out in between gasps, "why don't you try breaking your ankle? Maybe that will give you some more room?"

It wasn't that funny I guess, but we were totally beyond reason. In fact, we were in hysterics. Which is probably why we didn't notice a certain sombre Uchiha standing in the doorway. That is, until he spoke.

"You're still here."

We froze, and I took it upon myself to explain: "Um, yeah, sorry about that, um, we're a bit..."

Nope, couldn't say it.

Kiba and I dissolved into giggles again, as Itachi stood, watching with his usual distance as we got ourselves together.

"See, we can't really-" Kiba's attempt at explaining ended in a snort of laughter.

"I see."

Itachi walked over to where we were killing ourselves laughing, and casually unzipped us, sending Kiba sprawling onto the cold floor. He jumped to his feet with a yelp.

I stood up too, turning to thank Itachi, but he was already vanishing through the same door he'd arrived from.

I looked at Kiba, who was pulling on his jeans (we'd both slept in our underwear), and I went to get my clothes together.

It was almost ten before we got into the car and set off for school.

I put my feet up on the dashboard in front of me. "Sooo, how late are we gonna be?"

Kiba peered at his watch, "Um, about... two hours in total? Is it a record?" He asked cheerfully, adding with a grin, "And by the way, feel free to get your filthy feet off my car any time."

I poked my tongue out at him, "Like you really care. And yeah, it's our record, but Temari wasn't in 'till lunch once. Do you remember that?"

"Yeah I remember. But getting back to the topic of your feet, why wouldn't I care about this car? I saved up for about two years for the thing!"

I acknowledged that with a nod, remembering all the paper routes, car boot sales and dog walks Kiba had taken part in to raise the money for his precious car. And all before he was old enough to drive, talk about thinking ahead!

"Question. Why was your first car such a pile of crap if you were gonna get one of these all along? Why wait? You've had the money since you were about ten."

Kiba shrugged, "I wanted to make sure I was okay with driving on my own, I guess. I only had the thing for a month anyway."

"Partly because nobody we know would be seen dead in it, right?"

Kiba was one of the oldest of our group of friends, so he was among the first to turn 17. Apart from Temari, of course. He'd been driving around with his older sister for a couple of years, so he passed his test first time in the week after his birthday. We'd intended to make him drive us everywhere until the rest of us passed our tests, but when we saw the wreck of a car he'd bought...

Kiba chuckled, "Nah, it was just 'cos I really wanted this car! Like I was gonna let you guys influence _any_ decision of _mine_. The expression on your faces when you saw that original though... hilarious. Freakin' hilarious..."

I swatted his arm, "Oh I get it. You bought the crappy one precisely because you didn't want to have to drive us around. I see now. Well, that's really nice."

Kiba laughed, trying to whack me back without losing control of the car. I retreated to the very edge of my seat, still giggling. "Okay, okay, I surrender."

Kiba grinned smugly, "Thought you might."

I rolled my eyes and settled myself into the seat. It looked like we were getting close to school.

/\/\/\/\

Kiba pulled smoothly into one of the parking spaces in the sixth-form only car park. We got out of the car and looked briefly at each other before heading over to our group's usual meeting place.

What, you seriously expected us to head for class?

You have a lot to learn.

When we got there we found Kin and her little followers, Dosu and Zaku, sitting with Temari. I sat myself down on the low wall where Zaku was perched to light a cigarette.

"Hey guys, what's new?"

Temari stretched lazily, "Nothing much. 'Cept you guys pitching up hours late. It's a wonder you bothered showing up at all!"

Kiba snorted, "You're one to talk. Anyone know what I'm missing now?"

Kin dredged up a tatty, slightly dog-eared timetable from the depths of her shoulder bag, waving it in Kiba's direction. "We take most of the same subjects."

I was amazed, "You still have that? After a whole week? It only took me a day and a half to lose mine."

Kin flapped the paper more insistently at Kiba, while he looked at it as if it was likely to grow teeth and eat his hand if he touched it. "What did you _do_ to that thing, Kin? It hardly qualifies as paper anymore!"

"Just take it."

Kiba rolled his eyes, and lightly snatched the paper.

"FYI, I like to keep the timetable 'till I know it. Problem with that?"

I smiled, "Chill out Kin, no-one's taking the piss. So Kiba, discovered anything?"

He scrunched up his nose, "Mmmm, it lookslike I'm currently missing out on a thrilling lesson of 'mathematics,'" he said, then grinned with relief. "That's okay. I was worried we might be missing something important."

Temari and I let out a synchronized snort of laughter. I turned to her, "Go on Temari, you take this one."

She composed herself, "Okay Kiba, I'll bite. What exactly qualifies as important to you?"

Kiba's grin widened even further, "Lunch. Obviously."

I rolled my eyes as Temari fell about laughing again. Kin threw a cigarette at Zaku, "Light."

He raised an eyebrow. "Magic word?"

Kin looked thoughtful for a moment, then put on her best innocent face, "Um, moron?"

Zaku scowled at her, and then at Dosu as he handed her a lighter.

"Well I'm keeping the cigarette then," he grumbled. Kin laughed, "You're welcome to it. Dad just bought a truckload, so I've got 'em coming out my ears."

"Doesn't your dad care that you keep taking them?" I asked, though I quickly regretted opening my mouth. Kin turned her best 'are you joking?' look on me, and immediately I felt like sawing off my own foot to provide a distraction.

I tried to laugh it off, "I'll take that as a no then!" Kin laughed with me, and everything was alright again. Until Zaku decided to blow a mouthful of smoke into my face, that is.

"Ew! Gross," I waved it away frantically.

Kiba laughed, but kicked Zaku's foot lightly, "You know she hates that."

Zaku grinned, "Sorry... it's just, the look on your face." Dosu and he proceeded to imitate me in a state of disgust: "ooh, please, desist!"

Kin grabbed a handful of gravel and chucked it at the two of them, "Behave yourselves, freaks."

Temari laughed, "Kin, is that any way to treat your minions?"

Dosu and Zaku looked horrified at the idea, but Kin grinned slowly. "Hmmm, the idea has potential. Minions! Fetch me a soda!"

The two minions were obviously not seeing the funny side quite yet. As the four of us dissolved into hysterical laughter they sauntered off, trailing their last shreds of dignity behind them.

/\/\/\/\

I checked the clock: ten minutes to go until the end of this Spanish lesson. I flicked a paper pellet at the girl in front of me and hid a yawn behind my hand.

I hate Spanish.

The teacher was lecturing away, oblivious to the fact that nobody was listening. Well, either oblivious or just not caring. Hard to tell.

I doodled on my page, then doodled on my hand, then doodled on the desk, then looked up at the clock again.

_Nine_ minutes to go.

This is why I skip class so much. It's boring and it takes forever. I have limited hours in my life, why would I want to waste any of them listening to some old person with an over-inflated ego try to tell me how to conjugate Spanish verbs?

I flicked some more paper at the head of the girl unfortunate enough to be directly in my line of fire. She turned around, looking amused.

"Okay, enough Ino. I'm actually listening here!"

I pulled a daft face at her, "Well excuse me. Ten Ten have you turned into a swot?"

"No, I just don't want to fail Spanish. I quite enjoy this subject, even if you don't!"

"Damn right I don't," I muttered, rolling my eyes, "What a waste of time."

She sighed, exasperated. "Why did you take it if you hate it so much?"

"Dunno," I shrugged. "I think it was because of the exchange. A few weeks away from all my other classes, and my mum, sounds incredibly appealing."

"You'll be kinda lost if you go on the exchange without knowing a single word of Spanish."

"Hey, I know something! I can say 'voulez vous cou-"

"Ino, that's French!"

"Ten Ten! Ino! Could you maybe save your conversation for after school? You only have to wait five minutes."

We giggled, and Ten Ten turned back to the board. I sighed loudly, and went back to doodling. It was likely to be a long five minutes.

/\/\/\/\

"FREEDOM!"

I flinched, not prepared for the outburst.

"Um, ow? Did you have to yell that into my ear?"

Kiba scratched the back of his head, unashamed. "You need a lift home today?"

I shook my head. "Nope. Today I'm walking."

Kiba nodded, he knew me well enough not to push the issue. We dawdled slowly in the direction of the car park.

"Any plans for tonight?"

I shook my head. "Don't think so. Not yet, anyway. You?"

"Nah. Don't think mum would let me out anyway."

I smiled at him, "Fair enough. I'll text you later."

We had reached the car park. Kiba gave me a hug. "Cool. Talk to you later then."

I hugged him back, enjoying the warmth, before letting go to walk away.

"Bye!" I called over my shoulder, and Kiba waved from the driver's seat of his car. Even from several meters away I could make out Akamaru, paws up on the very dashboard I had had my feet on earlier.

I turned away and got my ipod out. Time to get moving.

It was a forty-five minute walk from the school to my house, so I very rarely went by foot in winter. Days like that day,when the wind was as cold as ice and seeming to cut right through to the bone, I would almost always get a lift from Kiba (or, as it was until recently, with Kiba's sister, who used to pick him up on her way back from work).

I only ever walked if I had something big on my mind that I wanted to think through (my brain works best when I'm walking), or when I wanted to be late to piss of my mother.

Or both, as was more common.

I pulled my ipod out of my pocket, shifting through songs to find the one I wanted to listen to.

_In this farewell there's no blood there's no alibi_

_'Cos I've drawn regret from the truth of a thousand lies_

_So let mercy come and wash away what I've done_

I sighed, consciously matching my footsteps to the pace of the music. I'd get through a lot of songs in the journey home.

When I eventually got to the front door I let myself in, knowing by the fact that the bottom lock was open that mum was already home.

Perfect.

"I'm home," I called out, infusing the statement with as much resentment as I could dredge up.

"So I can see."

I looked up; mum was standing at the top of the stairs (they come right down the front hall, so the bottom of the stairs is right by the front door).

I raised an eyebrow but didn't reply, hanging my jacket up on a hook by the door.

"And where the hell have you been?"

I could hear her trying to control her voice. She wasn't doing a very good job of it though – the worry, anger and frustration were seeping through, coloring her words in a way that was subtle, but clear enough if you knew what to listen for.

I dragged my eyes up, putting on my best 'are you thick?' face (courtesy of Kin).

"I've been at school, duh."

Mum gave the sigh of the long suffering. "You know what I mean Ino. I mean where the hell have you been as in yesterday afternoon, last night and this morning."

I shrugged. "Party." Sorry mum, that's need to know information. And I don't think that you really need to know. Or even want to know, not that it matters.

"Ino!" My name came out like a swearword, amusing me.

"Get out of the way, mum. I'm going to my room."

I walked up the stairs, bag slung over one shoulder, head down. Mum shifted to the side as I passed allowing just enough room to squeeze through. I didn't slam my door when I got to it, I knew that the soft and deliberate click of it closing fully would be a million times more effective.

I could hear her outside my door, probably debating whether or not to knock, so I plugged my ipod into the speakers and set it up at almost full volume.

I chose a song that I knew mum wouldn't like, "Teenagers" by My Chemical Romance, and pressed "play", letting the music fill all the dead air left by everything mum and I stopped ourselves from saying.

And now, for those of you who are wondering why I didn't turn it up to full volume right away, it' s because I was saving absolute max volume for the chorus.

_They say that_

_teenagers scare the living shit out of me_

_they could care less as long as someone'll bleed_

_so darken your clothes_

_or strike a violent pose_

_maybe they'll leave you alone, but not me_

I heard a tentative knock at the door. "Ino? Ino? Won't you open the door and talk to me?" Her voice sounded desperate, whiny, needy.

I scowled, ignoring her.

"Please? Ino, I just want to know where you were... what you were doing. I was worried sick."

A little anger was starting to creep back into her tone. Good. She's no fun when she's being pathetic.

Oh great, the chorus was back. I sang along as loud as I could, emphasizing the swear word. Little things like that, which normal people can just let go, annoyed mum worse than almost anything else.

"Ino! Open this door right now! You ungrateful girl, I ask a perfectly reasonable question and all I get is grief! How dare you? Out with god-knows-who all night, not so much as a word of warning to me. What on earth did I do to deserve this?"

I let out a short, sharp laugh at that.

The question that all of the parents ask themselves when they end up with kids like me. _Where did I go wrong? What did I do? Why me?_ Like they're the ones that are suffering.

Oh yes, it's so very _difficult_ for the adults, isn't it? We have no idea what a _struggle _it is. How _trying_ we are. Right?

"Ino? Are you even listening to me?"

She was sounding more doubtful now. As if maybe I'd climbed out of the window while she was ranting.

I wouldn't put it past myself.

"I'm going downstairs now. We'll talk at dinner."

Resigned. Honestly, the number of emotions she could go through in five minutes were truly impressive. She should have tried to make some money off it, rather than using it to bore me to death every other afternoon.

Talk at dinner, would we? Not if I had anything to say about it.

"Ten Ten, this is an urgent distress message from the Yamanaka household. I repeat, an _urgent message_. Agent Ino requires immediate rescue from dangerous enemy territory. Request speedy backup and any available cash for dinner. I'll bring some too. Over and out."

I sent off the text message, smirking. Ten Ten never lets me down.

Sure enough, within ten minutes I had my reply.

"Agent Ten Ten is on her way with close to £25. Unless agent Ino is a greedy pig, that should be enough for both of us. See you in twenty minutes, HANG IN THERE!"

Almost exactly twenty minutes later – that girl was always uncanny with her timing – Ten Ten was outside my window, waving.

I left my room, music still blaring, tip-toed down the stairs and opened the front door silently, slipping out into the cold afternoon air.

The sound of the front door closing was completely covered by my loud music, but even if it hadn't been, by the time mum could have gotten to the door we would have been long gone. Running down the street, enjoying the freedom and exhilaration of the escape.


	3. Chapter 3

**_Yay! I managed to get this one uploaded within, what, a month of the last chapter? I'm getting better! Thank you so much to my beta reader, Shelvesinthecloset, and also to Miss Hydrangea and kiwi4me for following this story so far!_**

**_Disclaimer:_**

**_I don't own Naruto, I'm not making a single penny out of this story!_**

**Study In Contrasts**

I flicked a chip at Ten Ten over the cheap plastic table, and she retaliated with a piece of lettuce from her burger.

"So what happened this time?" Ten Ten asked, looking a little concerned.

I shrugged, "Mum wanted to have a talk over dinner. She was doing my head in, I had to get out of there."

She chucked another bit of greenery at me with a grin, "Ino, when _isn't _your mum doing your head in?"

I pretended to consider it, "Hmm, well, I would hacve to say, all things considered...never!" I fished a piece of ice out of my diet cola and lobbed it at her. "And take _that!_"

Ten Ten pulled a face, "No fair. You know how much I hate the cold."

A couple of guys walked up to our table, the taller of them blond with startling green eyes, the shorter one with light brown hair and hazel eyes. Neither of them _bad _looking exactly, but not fan-girl material by a long shot.

"Hey," blondy said, trying to sound laid back and cool – it made him sound like a poser. "Are you two pretty girls out on your own?"

I looked over at my friend in amusement. A quick tip: if you want to chat up Ten Ten, don't patronize her. She hates it. And you will suffer for it.

She raised an eyebrow at the two of them. "Yeah. And?"

The shorter guy smiled calmly and put a hand on his friend's arm in a clear 'I'll take it from here' gesture. "We were just wondering if we'd have jealous boyfriends breathing down our necks if we sat down with you. Are these seats free?"

Ten Ten blinked, and nodded grudgingly.

Nice save there.

They introduced themselves as Tsumaru (the smart one) and Kakeru (the blond one). And both of them were flirting blatantly with Ten Ten. It was hilarious to watch – Tsumaru was having vastly more success than his friend, who kept saying exactly the wrong thing.

And each time Kakeru put his foot in it, his friend was there to calm Ten Ten down, lead her away from the topic, and save blondy from ending up losing a fairly important part of his anatomy.

I settled back to watch the show.

After almost an hour and a half, Kakeru sensed that he wasn't getting anywhere with Ten Ten, and decided to shift his attentions to me. What a moron.

"So, you come here often?"

I rolled my eyes, puh-_lease_. I shot Ten Ten a 'spare me' glance, and she got the message instantly.

"Look you, quit bugging me, and quit bugging my friend. Get this through your thick, blond skull: NEITHER OF US ARE INTERESTED. You're not God's gift to women, you're just a pretty boy with a head full of air, and we are SICK OF YOU, so just GO AWAY, before I HURT YOU."

The table, was, silent.

"Wow Ten Ten, speak your mind why don't you!" I said, grinning.

Kakeru was blinking silently, like an owl suddenly exposed to a harsh light, not knowing which way to turn or how to react.

Tsumaru was looking amused, and slightly pitying. He stood up, and Ten Ten looked at him in alarm, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be so rude. Well, actually..." He laughed and put a reassuring hand on her arm, "Don't worry. I'm not offended. But listen, he's not normally like this. He just... isn't good with girls. I'd better sort him out."

Ten Ten nodded gratefully.

He nudged Kakeru's foot with his own, "Time to move. Come on."

Kakeru was blushing bright red and muttering under his breath, but he did as his friend said. Tsumaru took a pen out of his pocket, and scrawled something on a napkin, handing it to Ten Ten.

"Maybe I'll see you around."

The two guys walked away from the table, leaving us in thoughtful silence.

"Did he just give you his number?"

Ten Ten nodded, forehead creased in concentration.

"You're thinking about Hyuga's son, aren't you."

Another nod, and a slight sigh. She looked up, her deep brown eyes meeting mine for a moment.

"Ino, d'you think he'll _ever_ notice me? Like, EVER?"

I laughed, "Ten Ten, I have no idea why he hasn't already."

She grinned back, "I reckon it's 'cos I'm not, like, girly enough. Or something."

I was shaking my head already, "Nuh-_uh_."

"And how would you know?!"

I shrugged, "He just doesn't seem the type to go for a girly-girl. Trust me, I know everything, remember? I'm right."

She laughed, but still didn't seem convinced. "That girl he's always with, _she_ looks pretty feminine."

I nodded slowly, "Yeees, but-"

Ten Ten cut me off, "Look, don't worry. I don't. It's not that big a deal."

She checked her watch, and grimaced.

"D'you need to go?"

"Kinda. Have you seen the time?"

I showed Ten Ten my wrist, utterly devoid of anything resembling a timekeeping device. "Why? How late is it?"

"Coming up to ten o'clock."

I raised my eyebrows in shock, "How the hell did that happen?"

"I got to yours at about six, it took us forty five minutes – give or take – to get to town, half an hour at starbucks, half an hour of aimless wondering, fifteen minutes to get ourselves sorted and with food here, half an hour of us chatting, an hour and a half with those boys."

I laughed weakly. "Yep. That'd do it. Will your parents be worried?"

Ten Ten shrugged, "I don't think they'll even be home yet to be honest. They were heading out for dinner when I left, so they'll get back at something like four in the morning. I just have to get back 'cos I have some History coursework to do."

I swatted her arm lightly, "What a good girl you are!"

She grinned, "What can I say, I actually quite enjoy the essays!"

I sighed, acting resigned. "Oh, ok, I forgive you."

"What for?!"

"Being a....... _**NERD!**_"

We linked arms, laughing, and headed for the bus stop.

I got home at about quarter to eleven. Not late at all by my usual standards. Late enough to practically warrant a search party by my mother's.

"Ino, I am almost at the end of my patience."

I laughed, "Oh yeah? What else is new?!"

She sighed, exasperated. "Where have you been this time?"

I started up the stairs. "Out."

"With?"

I turned back and hissed viciously, "None. Of your. Business."

She blinked, then turned away quickly. I stayed a moment to survey the damage, satisfied that I'd managed to strike a nerve. Then I turned and walked away.

That's the trick.

Don't stay long enough that you start to feel guilty.

Don't stay long enough to see them cry.

Just walk away.

I lay in my room, watching car headlights chase each other across my ceiling. Ipod headphones in my ears, listening to an old favourite, "Numb" by Linkin Park.

I rolled over onto my side, so that I was staring at the wall. I pressed my forehead into the cold surface, willing some of this frustration to seep out of me and into the bricks, draining into the ground.

_I've become so numb, I can't feel you there,_

_become so tired, so much more aware_

_I'm becoming this, all I want to do_

_is be more like me and be less like you_

I heard my phone buzz (I normally put it on silent at night, so that if I fall asleep it doesn't wake me up every time somebody texts me), and sat up slightly, pausing my ipod and leaning over the edge of the bed to rummage in my handbag.

I took out the phone, **one unread message**, I had a look:

"Great blond joke: a young blond woman decides she's sick of people making jokes about her hair color, so she goes to a hairdresser and gets it dyed brown. Then she goes and buys a new car, and goes for a drive. Soon, she finds herself in the countryside, and passes a large flock of sheep. She stops to talk to the shepherd, saying 'that's a very nice flock of sheep you've got there.'

The shepherd is pleased, and replies, 'why thank you.'

The "brunette" continues, 'I have a proposition for you.'

the shepherd replies, 'oh really? Let's hear it then.'

'if I can guess exactly how many sheep you have there, can I keep one?'

the shepherd laughs, 'ok then, have a guess.'

the woman sits up, looks around and then says, '483'

the shepherd is shocked, 'wow! That is exactly right! Well, go on, pick the sheep you want.'

the woman chooses her sheep, and puts it in the car. Before she can drive away, the shepherd stops her.

'ok, now I have a proposition for you.'

the woman is intrigued. 'Go on then?'

'If I can guess your real hair color, can I have my dog back?'

Mega lolz, dontcha think Ino? You ditz :P

-from Kiba"

I rolled my eyes, running off a quick reply:

"I hope that wasted a lot of your credit. Didn't you know that blond jokes are supposed to be short so that we can remember them?

-from Ino"

I put my phone away, smiling serenely. Just like that, the pent up anger and frustration was gone. Thank Kami for Kiba!

I walked over to Kiba's house next morning, to get a lift for school. Yeah, he probably would have come to pick me up from my house but I like to save people some effort sometimes.

Hey, don't look at me like that! I can be nice.

Sometimes...

Oh whatever.

So, I got to Kiba's in plenty of time, and knocked at the door. His older sister Hana answered it. She's 20, and in training to be a vet.

"Oh, hi Ino. Kiba is getting ready at the moment, d'you want to come in to wait?"

I smiled at her, "Yes thank you, that would be great."

Hana stood aside to let me pass, and I headed straight for the stairs.

"Planning on keeping him company while he gets his stuff together?" Hana asked, She seemed a little suspicious.

No, I was actually intending to shag your brother senseless, then stab him with a fang ripped from Akamaru's poor little mouth. Then I was going to steal his money and escape out of the window. Natch.

"Yeah, maybe I can help him find things."

Hana has some sense of humor issues in relation to her little brother. It probably wouldn't be wise to antagonize her. Fun, but not wise.

It took me less than a minute to get up to Kiba's room – I know his house as well as I know my own, I was here most of my summer holidays five or six years ago. I knocked on the door, "Hey! Inuzuka! Police, open up!"

"Oh right?" I couldn't see him, but I could tell from his voice that Kiba was grinning. I could just _sense _it. "Well, if that's the case, better kick the door down."

"Ok then Mr, you asked for it! _Hi-YAA!_"

I kicked the door, hoping it would make an impressive loud noise or something. All I got was a bruised foot. "ow, ow, OW!... Kiba, what is this door made of, lead?!"

The door opened, and Kiba appeared, looking anxious, "Sorry Ino, you ok?"

I shoved him lightly in the chest, "Yeah yeah, I'm fine. Are you nearly ready?"

He nodded, "Just gotta get my shoes on... have you seen them?"

"Your shoes? How can you lose your shoes?"

He waved a hand vaguely at the rubbish-dump-bomb-site-disaster-zone that was his room. "Even _you_ couldn't find shoes in here."

I raised an eyebrow, "Kiba, is that a challenge?"

He just grinned, stepping back a little. "If that's the way you want to see it!"

"Right then, mister. Prepare to be SHOED!"

I started systematically going over every inch of the "room", while Kiba sat on his bed and laughed at me.

"Y'know Ino, you really ought to watch that competitive nature of yours. It's gonna land you in trouble someday. You might end up doing somebody else's dirty work, like some kind of sucker... oh, wait... looks like you got that one covered already!"

I straightened up, hands behind my back, and drew in a breath to deliver a lecture.

Then I chucked a trainer at him.

"Say what you like, dog-breath. One shoe down, one to go."

We got to school 20 minutes late today, which for us is practically early.

"Watcha got first?"

I looked up, "Mm, dunno. Spanish I think."

"Gonna go to it?"

I opened the car door and got out, "Maybe, maybe not. Depends really."

Kiba joined me, locking the car door over his shoulder as we walked towards the building (he really loves those long distance locking things. It's quite daft, but in a cute way). "Depends on what?"

As we turned the corner, we saw Kin, Temari and Ten Ten walking towards us. I grinned, "Depends on those guys."

"Ino, Kiba, we're planning a theme-park excursion after lunch. Feel like joining?"

I looked to Kiba, who shrugged, "I'm in if you're in."

I turned back to the girls. "Looks like you have another two joining the group. Anyone else?"

Temari held up a hand, counting off on her fingers, "Ok well there's me, Kin, Ten, you guys, Kin's minions, Kankuro-"

"Doesn't he go to the private school?" Kin interrupted

Temari shrugged, "Yeah, but only 'cos dad reckons Gaara would get beaten up if he's alone."

Kiba looked puzzled, "Gaara being...?"

I whacked him over the head, "Gaara being Temari's brother, dumbass."

"Ok, ok! Violent..." He paused for a moment, "Ok, so Kankuro is in which year?"

Temari grinned, "In his second year of sixth form, just above us. I think I see where this is going."

Kiba frowned in confusion, "Wait, is Kankuro older than you?"

"Nope!"

Kin shook her head irritably, "I'm already bored of this conversation. Is anyone else coming to maths?"

"Nuh-uh, sorry Kin but I'm gonna get to the bottom of this first. Temari, how old are you?"

Temari smiled sweetly, " Why Kiba, I'm nineteen of course. Don't tell me you didn't know!"

He just looked at her, baffled. Temari laughed, "When I got to my second year of GCSEs I knew I was gonna fail miserably. The mocks had gone badly, and I hadn't changed my attitude for the real things either. Dad freaked out, and paid a whole lot of money to just put me back to the start of year ten. Two years down the toilet. Kankuro found it hilarious, his big sister in the year below him. Different schools thank _God_, and that was when we moved from Suna to here, so there wasn't anybody I know... but still..."

"And so, when you got to sixth form, you just carried on?"

"Yep. I did ok in the GCSEs the second time around – I had gone through the whole thing twice after all."

I was shaking my head now, in sheer disbelief, "Kiba, you are kidding. You hadn't heard about this? The rest of us have known since forever."

"How?!"

I shrugged, "Truth or Dare?"

Kin sighed loudly. "Hello? Anybody going to maths, like, ever?"

Kiba nodded slowly, "Yeah, coming now Kin."

They walked off to maths, and I giggled, "Well Temari, you shocked him!"

She nodded and linked arms with me. "Come on Ino, you have Spanish, I have French, let's go do our multi-lingual thing."

Ten Ten linked arms with me on the other side, grinning. "Sounds good to me!"

At lunch, we met by Kiba's car. All except for Kankuro, who was meeting us at the theme park itself. Escaping from our school during the day is really not difficult; sixth formers are allowed to leave the grounds to eat anyway, so we just head out and they don't look twice.

It was much more fun last year.

It only took twenty minutes to drive out to the water park, and the massive car park there was practically empty.

Kin rubbed her hands together with glee. "You know the whole park will be like this?! I love theme parks on school days."

We got out of the car, laughing. Ten Ten shivered slightly as Kiba shut the doors. "It's a bit cold isn't it. Are they closing down soon for the winter?"

"Yep," Temari answered, "In about two weeks actually. That's why tickets are..." she held up a promotional leaflet "... 40% cheaper than normal! Almost half price."

I was impressed, "And they weren't expensive to begin with. Nice!"

We walked over to the ticket office, and saw two people hovering by the small booth. Temari looked anxious, "Oh God, he didn't bring Gaara, did he?" she muttered.

I looked at her. "Would it be such a big deal? Is he a complete pain in the butt? How old is your youngest brother anyway?"

"Gaara is your age, he's in year 12 like the rest of us. It's not that he's a pain, as such. It's just... complicated, I guess."

We'd almost reached the two by now, and so I took the opportunity to study Temari's mysterious youngest sibling.

Scruffy red hair, pale skin, almost non-existent eyebrows, a tattoo on his forehead – a Japanese symbol that I didn't recognize – very striking eyes, a bright bluey-green. I would probably describe it as turquoise. Or maybe aquamarine? I dunno.

Serious issues around the eyes. Deep purple, almost black smudges underneath and all around his eyes. Either this guy got into a lot of fights, or he never slept. Getting even closer, I could see that he'd emphasized the effect with bold black eyeliner around his eyes, goth-style.

We came to a halt, and I looked up at Temari. She was glaring daggers at Kankuro, who was rubbing the back of his head and looking sheepish.

"Kankuro, can I have a minute?" She passed me some money, "Here, can you get my ticket please?"

"Sure Temari."

Right after I listen in on your conversation, of course!

While the others faffed over the best way of getting tickets, and whether or not we wanted a map, I focused on Temari and Kankuro's hushed conversation.

"Look, Tem, he practically made me, 'kay? He wouldn't stay there."

"Dad will kill you. And me. And you know what Gaara's like. This is _so _not his kind of thing. I cannot be-_lieve_ you would do this."

"But Temari-"

"Omigosh, don't even start! There are no excuses Kankuro! _No excuses!_ Just say you're really sorry, and you'll never do it again, and you'll take whatever punishment Dad decides to dish out and tell him that I had nothing," she poked him in the chest for emphasis, "to," another poke, "do with it." A final poke, this time in the nose.

Kankuro scowled, rubbing his nose. "He said he was curious about truancy. He said he wanted to find out 'where the appeal lies' in sneaking out of school."

Temari sighed, "Kankuro, Gaara says all kinds of random shit. That's just what he's like. You've known him for fifteen years, if you haven't learned to deal with that yet..."

She turned and started walking back in our direction. I looked over at Gaara.

He was watching his brother and sister with the most bizarre expression. Sort of clinical, like he was observing a scientific experiment. It sent a little shiver down my spine.

Temari stopped next to her and clapped her hands loudly, "Right everyone! It's time to party!"


	4. Chapter 4

**_I'm sorry, again, for the delay with this chapter. Thank you so much to everyone who's reviewed this for sticking with it! Anyway, I hope you all enjoy this chapter. ^^_**

**_Disclaimer:_**

**_I don't own Naruto. Never have, and never will -sobs dramatically- This story is not written for profit._**

**Study In Contrasts**

I got home at half past seven that evening. Mum was waiting in the hallway, sitting on the stairs and looking stressed as usual. No prizes for guessing what came next;

"Ino, where have you been?"

I mouthed the words along with her.

"I've been worried sick. Why couldn't you text me? At least tell me that!"

"Phone was off." I held up my dead mobile as proof.

"You could have turned it on. Don't try to pretend you're stupid, you know it won't wash with me."

"No battery. Could you please move so that I can get up to my room?"

She got up to move, taken aback a little by my use of the word please. I waited until I was past her to speak again.

"And stay the hell out of my life."

I flounced into my room, slamming the door decisively behind me. I lay on my bed, thinking back on the day.

One of my favorite things to do when at home is to completely immerse myself in a memory. Sometimes I'm so absorbed that I completely forget where I actually am.

Remembering in order to forget.

We'd ran straight for the merry go round first. Trying to pile as many of us as possible onto one of the horses, shrieking with laughter when the control guy yelled at us. Kiba then stood on two horses at once, one foot on each saddle, trying to make a serious, imperious face. It was hilarious.

Then Temari mock-bowed to him, and started calling him "Kibius Caeser", and when Zaku was distracted with chuckling Kin and I shoved him off his horse. He fell onto Dosu, and the two had a mini fight on the wooden floor.

Next stop was the sweet shop; Kiba and I bought a packet of marshmallows, while Kankuro and Dosu pocketed about four each. They tried to walk out casually, but then a packet fell out of Kankuro's hoodie, and we had to leg it.

"_Ino, come out here."_

_Knocking on the door_

"_Ino, I need to talk to you. It's important."_

_More knocking._

_Ignore it. Focus on the memory, the most fun you've had in years._

_Fade back into the words and thoughts and feelings of the event._

_Dissolve. Fade. Escape._

We'd piled onto the biggest roller coaster in the park, then, when we got close to the top of the tallest drop, we started flinging out marshmallows.

They went everywhere! Supremely satisfying!

What did we do next?

"_Ino, I am going to have that lock taken off your door. You can't be trusted with the responsibility."_

I felt myself slipping away from the memory, and sighed.

"Jeez, mum, don't have a heart attack. I'm coming out."

You have to pick your battles.

"So? Spit it. What's the big problem?"

Mum had sat me down at the table, but instead of filling me in, had spent about ten minutes messing around with tea and biscuits (both of which were sitting, untouched, in front of me).

She passed a hand over her face, and I realized suddenly how tired she was looking. The wrinkles around her eyes and forehead seemed to have deepened, her eyes looked dull and she wasn't wearing any makeup.

Basically, she looked like crap.

Which, I decided, was no more than she deserved.

I was gonna mean that even more when I heard what was coming.

"Ino, I'm not going to soften this for you, you're no idiot. You're completely off the rails and you know it. It's time something was done."

I inspected the sleeve of my shirt with a bored expression.

As the seconds ticked by, it became obvious that she was waiting for some kind of response. I looked up.

"And?"

My hand was lying on the table, but as she reached out to hold it I withdrew, scratching the back of my neck instead.

"Ino... You're switching schools."

I froze, "No."

She just looked at me. A little sad, a little sorry, but mostly determined.

"No. Mum, you're joking. I won't. You _can't._"

"I'm sorry hone-"

I stood up, yelling, "DON'T call me that. Just _shut up_, what the _hell _are you playing at? You think this is a game? You can just move me around like some, some part of a machine? Oh, I'm not working here so you'll just _rip me out and move me?_"

Mum was sitting dead still, dead quiet. Looking up at me with big eyes in a sad, old face.

I kicked the table leg furiously, "You stupid _cow_. You think this'll work better than detention or writing lines? Yeah, taking me away from all of my friends, all of the people I care about, will _motivate _me _so much_. In what mental state were you when you decided that that would be a good idea? You _dumbass._"

Mum stood, and when she spoke her voice was surprisingly firm and level.

"Ino, this is the best move. I know I can't expect you to trust me, but I do think this is the best way."

I leaned towards her.

"Listen," I hissed viciously, "I don't give a _shit_ how you think this will help me. I don't want to hear any of it. If you go through with this, I will _never _forgive you. You think I'm bad now? You think I'm out of control? You think _this _is _off the rails_? Just you wait."

And I turned and left. Leaving the loudest silence in the history of the world in my wake.

I drew back my hand, then flung the stone as hard as I could at the upstairs window.

I heard the rattle as it hit, and waited a moment. After counting to forty under my breath, ( I was aiming for sixty, but I got bored), I tried again. Then waited.

Finally, movement.

The curtains shifted to reveal a very sleepy Kiba.

He woke up when he saw me though.

His face switched in an instant from half asleep to worried, and he yanked the window open.

"Ini? What happened to you? What's going on?"

I knew I must look a mess. When I left my house, I hadn't considered where I was going. I just started walking, my feet instinctively taking me to the place that made me feel safest.

Or, more specifically, the person who made me feel safest.

It was about halfway there that the tears came. Plus, it was a cold night (der, it being early September and all), and I'd stormed out without a coat. I was half frozen.

"Ini?"

I looked up, unable to speak, trying to communicate telepathically.

_Help me Kiba, help me_

I felt a drop of water hit my head, and trickle down the back of my neck. I tilted my head to the sky, and saw the dense clouds. Another droplet landed on my cheek and my tired mind finally processed the information, realising that some serious rain was coming.

As if things could get any worse.

I felt my knees waver, then give out entirely, and I let myself crumple to the ground. I curled up in the grass of Kiba's front garden, getting steadily wetter and colder.

Suddenly, I felt warmth on my arm. I looked up, and straight into the panicked eyes of my best friend.

"Ino you're scaring me. Do you need a doctor? Should I ring an ambulance or something?"

I managed to shake my head jerkily.

"Are you sure? You're soaked, and absolutely freezing. What if you have hypothermia?"

I just blinked stupidly at him, then closed my eyes again, feeling a couple more tears leak out.

Then I let out a high pitched yelp as I was lifted without warning.

"I'm bringing you inside. You need to get warm and dry."

I looked up at Kiba, and he smiled at me gently.

"Whatever it is, I'm gonna help make it better."

He sounded so sure.

I burrowed my face into his chest, and felt his arms tighten around me a little. Whether he could help me with my school-moving problem or not, I didn't care. 'Cos everything suddenly seemed a little better.

I don't know whether I fell asleep or fainted as Kiba carried me up the stairs, but next thing I knew I was in his bed, Kiba snoring lightly on the floor nearby and Akamaru draped over my legs, a weak and wintry light filtering through the curtains.

I shifted a little, and heard a quiet bark acknowledging that I had woken up.

Kiba was up and next to me in an instant.

"Hey, someone's woken up! How are you feeling?"

His tone was light and playful, but I could see that his eyes were still way stressed.

I opened my mouth, and found words unwilling to come. I frowned a little, and shook my head distractedly.

"You don't want to tell me?"

I shook my head harder, and Kiba looked puzzled, "You... _can't_ tell me?"

He looked so baffled that I laughed a little.

He grinned at me, "I see your voice isn't completely gone then! Knew that wouldn't last long."

I smiled at that, "Watch it. I may be tired as hell, but I can still kick your ass." My voice sounded hoarse, as if my throat had been left to rust for a long time.

Kiba chuckled, "I think you need a drink. Water or juice?"

I thought for a moment. "You got orange juice?"

"Always."

Kiba's family is big on fruit. Their fridge is always stocked with whatever fruit is in season, and a vast selection of juices.

"I'll take some soul juice then, please."

Kiba laughed and stood, "Coming right up!"

When Kiba and I were little, we decided that orange juice was good for the soul – for some reason drinking it always cheered us up. I thought it was probably because it was such a cheerful color, Kiba thought it was because it tasted like summer; sweet and slightly tangy, smooth but with the merest hint of bitterness.

That is, if you're drinking the right orange juice!

Anyway, since then, orange juice = soul juice. And it had never failed me yet.

Kiba was back in less than two minutes with a glass full of orange juice (with ice, yay!) and I drank it eagerly. Once I was done, my throat felt a little less like a gravel pit, and I was able to talk pretty much normally again.

An ability that I made full use of.

"Queen bitch is making me move schools."

Kiba raised his eyebrows, "Tell me you're joking."

"No joke," I spat bitterly, "She thinks it'll help me work better. She thinks it's the only way. Kiba, I bet we'll have to move home as well. I mean, there aren't any other state schools in the area... What if we move so far away that I can't see you anymore, what if-"

Kiba threw his arms around me, cutting me off. "Stop there," he whispered roughly into my hair, "Ini, I don't care where you move. No distance is enough to stop us from being friends, understand?" I drew in a ragged breath and Kiba held me at arm's length for a moment, glaring into my eyes fiercely. "Ino, understand?"

I realized suddenly that this was just as much about convincing himself as it was about convincing me. I nodded solemnly.

"I understand."

Kiba pulled me back into a bone-crunching hug.

"Good."

I checked the time on my mobile. Ten to nine, still early morning by my normal Saturday standards. And eleven missed calls. And four text messages. All from mum.

I had a brief look through the texts, they were all fairly predictable. _Our conversation wasn't finished, I'm sorry, are you okay, where are you?_

Kiba peered over my shoulder at my mobile.

"Wow, she's pretty persistent!" I raised an eyebrow at him, and he laughed, "I'm just saying!"

I sighed, "Whatever. What's next on the agenda, Kibi?"

Hearing a knock on the door downstairs, Kiba stood up.

"I'm thinking; answer the door, have breakfast, go to the park, eat lunch out... and then... I'm not sure. We'll decide when we get there."

I nodded, "Sounds like a plan. Lead the way!"

We walked downstairs, greeting Kiba's sister when we passed her by the bathroom. Did I mention that Kiba's house is actually quite big? It's got three floors! But the top floor is a converted loft, and there isn't a lot of space. That's Kiba's room.

We (eventually!) got down to the front door, which nobody had gotten round to answering already, bizarrely, and I opened it, coming face to face _with..._

My mother. Natch.

"Ino, thank goodness. I thought you'd be here. I've been-"

She was cut off, rather abruptly, by a door slamming in her face. Kiba looked torn between shock and amusement.

I turned on my innocent face, "Wow, strong wind today, huh?"

"Ino? I can hear you. I know you're still there. We _need _to talk about this, honey."

I looked at the door in disbelief. "Kiba, your door is really not very soundproof."

Kiba rolled his eyes, "Well I'm so sorry that our door doesn't meet your high expectations of privacy protection!"

I shrugged, "I was just saying-"

"Look," Kiba's tone was playful, "Are you going to open the un-soundproof door or not?"

I pretended to consider, then turned on my heel and headed for the kitchen.

"I'm thinking... not."

"Ino?"

I turned to face the door again. "Shut up and go home you stupid cow. I have _nothing more to say to you_."

There was silence from outside. Then the sound of shuffling footsteps, and the shadow of my mother retreated from the doorstep.

I took in a shaky breath, and unconsciously put out a hand to steady myself on the wall.

Kiba moved toward me, lowering his head slightly so that he could look me in the eyes.

"It's okay, Ini" he whispered softly.

I hesitantly leaned forwards, until my head was resting slightly on his chest, and Kiba folded his arms around me.

"It's gonna be okay"

In the end, I left Kiba's house alone. His mum and sister wanted him to eat breakfast with them, and I was getting the distinct impression that I wasn't wanted.

Funny how things change; only a few years ago, and they would have been practically begging me to stay. Not since two summers ago.

Anyway, I don't like to make Kiba choose between his family and me – though I might feel differently if I was more certain who he'd pick! – so I convinced him that I was feeling better, and left.

A ten minute walk from Kiba's, and I was at the park where most of the neighborhood kids liked to spend their weekends. There's nothing special about it, just lots of trees, and a small patch of tarmac in the middle with a slide, some swings, a seesaw. You know the drill.

Basic, but somehow perfect.

I sat on a swing in the old playground. Almost equidistant from all of my friends houses, it was a popular hangout for us.

But I wasn't there with the gang. I was there to think.

I tried to put myself in my mother's shoes, I really did. I thought about how difficult it had to be, to live with a daughter like me. But that led me to thinking about the past. Back when I was younger, and nicer, and I could tell my mum that I loved her, and hear the same words back.

I cried for the little girl, and I cried for myself.

Time seemed to change, to bend. By the time I unfolded myself from the swing, encouraging my stiff leg muscles to stand, the sun was low in the sky, and getting lower by the minute.

The sky was dark with clouds. The television had predicted no rain until tomorrow, and I'd agreed. Surely after last night's downpour there wasn't more rain left to fall? It seemed I was wrong. There's always more to come.

An unexpected breeze reached up to ruffle my hair, and I stood up.

Turning towards home, I began the fifteen minute walk, from one storm to the next.


	5. Chapter 5

**_-Grovels on floor- I know, I know, I keep saying I'll upload faster next time and it never happens, I'm sorry T.T I've hit another bit that I'm having trouble writing, which is slowing me down. That, plus I've got mountains of revision to do for GCSEs at the moment. In three weeks I'll be free, but until then I have to fit in story writing around my exams. It's killing my creativity, I think!! Moving on, thanks again to ShelvesInTheCloset (my amazing beta reader), UnbreakableFighter, kiwi4me and Miss Hydrangea (my regular reviewers). I hope you all enjoy this chapter!_**

**_Disclaimer:_**

**_I'm not making any money from this story and I still don't own Naruto. I don't even own this disclaimer!_**

**Study In Contrasts**

Sitting cross legged on the floor in front of my mirror, I slowly pulled my hair out of the ponytail I'd put it in for the night. I ran my fingers through the long, blond strands. They needed washing, really, but I only had half an hour to get ready. I'd have to do without.

Mum was downstairs, in the kitchen, making an unnatural amount of noise. Hoping to signal me that it was time to get up, I suppose. I stood with a sigh, and went to inspect my wardrobe.

What do you wear for your first trip to see school that you hate? Something ugly? Something shocking? Or something pretty and proper, that will win you maximum acceptance?

Of course, I had no idea what school I was actually going to see. Mum hadn't seen fit to provide me with that information!

We hadn't spoken much at all, actually, since the day she told me.

I thought back. When I had finally arrived home that day, I'd discovered that I'd been sitting on that old swing for almost eight hours. Having left Kiba's house at about eleven, that had meant that I didn't get back to my house until half past seven.

I was greeted by an empty house.

Making my way upstairs, I found a note stuck to my door.

"Ino, I'm sorry you feel so strongly about this, but it's for your own good. You'll understand when you're older.

-Mum"

Cliché much? I remember half expecting to see a PS – This is hurting me more than it's hurting you. Maybe even "it's not me, it's you", to really drive the point home!

The open day was a week later. My mother and I had barely spoken four words to each other in that time. But back to the task at hand!

I returned my concentration to my massive array of clothing, picking out various shirts and skirts, still trying to make up my mind about which style to go for. What effect I wanted to have.

"Ino?"

I stopped, confused. That wasn't my mum's voice! I opened my bedroom door.

"OMG! What the-"

My squeal of delight was interrupted by none other than Temari Sabaku throwing her arms around me. I almost fell over backwards with the impact – she's a good six inches taller than me! – and we separated, giggling.

I finished my question, "What the hell are you doing here?"

Temari stuck a hand on her hip, getting into her trademark "prepare-to-be-lectured" pose.

"You, missy, have some explaining to do."

I grinned, mimicking her pose and tone of voice. "As do you! Why aren't you in school?"

"Oh no you don't! I'm not in school because _you're _not in school." She extended an accusing finger in my direction, "And _you're _not in school because you're spending today going round a school that _isn't ours_. So _I _am here to find out the story!"

I held up my hands in defeat. "Ok, you got me! How'd you get Kiba to tell you why I wasn't in?"

Temari put on her best innocent face, though I gotta say that the effect was _slightly_ spoiled by her evil smirk, and shrugged. "Let's just say, he wasn't complaining!"

I gasped, half shocked and half amused, "Tell me you're joking!"

She laughed, "Yup, I'm kidding. But I wish I'd had a camera to catch the look on your face!"

I laughed with her, whacking her arm lightly, "Right, so what really happened?"

"Nothing interesting! Kin commented on the fact that you hadn't shown up yet, Kiba looked shifty, I took him to one side and beat it out of him, you know how it goes!"

I was just opening my mouth to ask for either the truth, or a more believable story, when I noticed the time.

"Shit! Shit shit!" I started to pull clothes out of my wardrobe, searching for something to wear.

"Hey, what's the problem?" Temari started shifting through my pile of rejected outfits, "You late or something?"

"No, but I'm gonna be." I kept frantically flinging clothes around.

"Ino?"

Temari's voice was small. Confused. She never sounds like that.

I whirled around, "Tema, what's up?"

She had her head tilted to one side, the very picture of confusion, "Ino, why are you moving schools?"

I suddenly understood why she'd come over here as soon as she found out.

"Aw man, Temari, you mean Kiba never told you that bit?"

Her eyes narrowed, "He knew?"

"Well, yeah. But I asked him to keep it to himself." I walked over to Temari and gave her a hug, "My mum's making me switch in some desperate effort to get me on the straight and narrow. I don't want to leave you guys. You're more my family than she is."

Temari hugged me back briefly then backed away to get a good look at me.

"Right. So what are you wearing?"

I grimaced, indicating the mile-high (I know, I know, I've been told a million times not to exaggerate...) pile of discarded clothes.

"Do you think you could help?"

Temari's face lit up. She loves giving fashion advice!

"What sort of look are you going for?"

I shrugged, "I hadn't really decided yet. What do you think?"

Temari didn't answer, pulling out some random clothes and scrutinising them. I decided to work on fixing my hair a little, and sat down in front of my mirror again. Just then, mum decided to poke her head through the door.

Temari and I looked up at her, and she looked at us.

I think she was surprised to see someone else in the room, presumably Temari didn't enter my house in the conventional way! But mum still didn't say anything. Just looked pointedly at her watch, and walked downstairs again.

Temari raised an eyebrow at me, and I rolled my eyes in return, "She's been like that for a while now."

There was a pause, while we both went back to what we were doing, when, "Ah-HA!"

I turned my head, "You sound happy!"

The grin on Temari's face was nothing short of triumphant.

"I have it. The perfect outfit. You are gonna knock 'em dead." She threw a bundle of material at me, and then moved over to my bedside table where my makeup bag was sitting. "What've we got here then..."

I shook my head a little, amused, and started to get dressed.

I knew that Temari had done a good job when I got in the car and mum actually froze. I stifled a smirk and sat demurely, staring straight ahead. It took a full forty eight seconds (yes, I was counting. What's your point?) for her to get her act together and start the car.

I was wearing a sort of dusky rose-coloured T-shirt. Tight around the chest area, and a couple of inches short, so it showed off a strip of skin above my skirt. The skirt itself was a mini in dark denim. My shoes were the highest I owned. My only pair of five inch heels. Stiletto heels, may I add. Murder to walk in? Most certainly! But worth it for the look on my mother's face. And in the most gorgeous shade of pink, somewhere between a rose colour and a hot pink.

Like Temari would let me go out without accessories. My left arm carried four thick bangles, in different shades of pink, and I was wearing a delicate silver necklace with a tiny rose quartz heart.

My hair was done up in a ponytail, with a black ribbon to tie it back, and a long fringe almost covering my right eye.

I don't like to blow my own horn... Well, actually I do. I was looking a-ma-zing.

And so I was fairly confident that whichever school we went to look at, I was going to (to quote Temari) "Knock 'em dead".

And I was looking forward to it.

My confidence faltered slightly when we pulled up in the parking lot of Konoha High School.

Enormous. Old. Beautiful, in a big-old-building kinda way. Mixed school, with a great reputation. Most surprisingly, _private _school.

What were we doing in a private school?

I looked at mum, but she just turned off the engine and got out of the car.

As I followed her up the path towards the imposing entrance, I began to wonder if this was some kind of joke. A private school? Puh-lease! The question was, if it was some elaborate plot, how was I supposed to feel?

Excited at the thought of going to a posh private school, only to have it whisked away at the last moment? "Like we could afford it!"

Or was I expected to be intimidated? "See how terrifying the teachers are? See how stupid you'd look next to these students? Now, be thankful I'm not sending you here."

But what if it was for real? Was that even a possibility? _A private school?!_

I shook my head irritably, trying to clear the thoughts from my mind. I mean, I was gonna find out in a minute anyway, why worry about it?

We reached the enormous oak doors, and stopped. An intercom to my left buzzed into life, and a cheerful voice came through. Mum had a brief chat with Miss Intercom, and I took the opportunity to hitch my skirt up a little more and make sure my hair was still in place.

The heavy doors swung open, and I followed my mum inside.

In the car on the way home the voiceless wonder decided to start interrogating me.

"So, Ino?"

I glanced up at my mother with what I _hoped _was an expression of bored indifference.

"So _what?_" I drawled it out, in my most irritating voice. Mum has always hated it when I talk to her like that. I guess it's just one of her 'pet peeves'.

"What did you think of Konoha High School?" She refused to be baited. How irritating. I treated her to a teenage masterpiece as a reply: A slight grunt, with a half-assed-one-shoulder shrug.

"There seemed to be a lot of students, don't you think? You'd be sure to make lots of new friends." Was this woman's skin made of _lead? _This time I just snorted. Hundreds of times she'd told me off for that, apparently it's a disgusting noise, the sort of thing you'd expect from an animal, not a girl.

I silently willed her to get pissed off. Or at least say that she disapproved! But no, nothing doing.

"It's had excellent results. And the headmistress seemed so friendly! Lots of wonderful facilities too. Would you agree? Ino?"

I rolled my eyes and sighed pointedly, keeping my face turned to the window. After a few moments passed, and mum had remained silent, I chanced a look in her direction.

As I turned my head, she shot me a pained look, then went right back to focusing on the road.

I sighed, "So what school are you actually planning on forcing me into?"

Yes, I'd given up. The curiosity was too much!

Mum looked confused, "That one, sweetie. That's why we went to see it."

"Er, you have realised that it's a private school, right?"

She nodded slowly, and I just looked at her in amazement. I laughed, at her not with her, "Ok, you really have lost your mind. Private school? Hell-_ooo? _Are you stupid? The list of reasons against it is longer than one of your dumbass lectures! How the hell are you gonna pay for it? Do you even know how much it costs?"

I stopped, looking for some kind of response. After a few seconds had passed, she let out a small sigh.

"Are you quite finished?" Her voice was irritated. A little cold. And not what I was expecting.

I countered with a patronising tone. "Aww, would you like me to stop raining on your parade?"

"No, what I'd really like is for you to stop acting like a brat and have a normal conversation. And if that really is completely beyond your abilities, I'd like you to be quiet for a moment so that I can answer your questions."

For a moment, I didn't say anything. I wasn't stunned into silence, I was just... a little surprised. Mum was sitting completely straight, gaze focused on the road. She looked very determined.

"Well then? What do you want to know, Ino?"

I decided to play along for the time being.

"Right, are you really planning on sending me to Konoha high school?"

She nodded.

"... Can you actually pay the fees?"

"Mmm."

I rolled my eyes, "Not an answer, mum." She gave me a wry smile,

"So you spotted that! We can't afford the full fees, no. But we can just about cover it with a bursary."

"A what now?"

"It's a form of financial aid. Basically, the school will help us out with some of the fees."

"And how the hell do we qualify for that?"

She looked a little shifty, "The deputy headteacher is a friend of mine."

Wow... that's not suspicious _at all_. But I couldn't worry about it just then. I had other issues to raise.

"Fine, you can pay. But is it a good idea?"

"What do you mean?"

I rolled my eyes, "I am so not a private school girl."

"Isn't that the whole point?" Mum sounded exasperated.

"To make me unhappy? To make me uncomfortable?" My voice was raised now, I was almost shouting at her, and a part of me realised that we'd been having our first actual conversation in a long time.

_Stop it! You'll ruin it! You were so close to getting along again!_

But then I was shouting.

"You keep saying that it's for the best, that is so typical you! You think you know what's best for me but you're clueless! You don't know me!"

While I'd been screaming at her, we'd pulled into the driveway of our house. I got out, slammed the car door and headed for the front door before realising that I didn't have a key.

Nice. Smooth exit there, Ino!

I had to wait for mum to turn the engine off, and come over. She got her key out, but instead of opening the door, looked me in the eyes.

"I have got you a place at one of the most respected schools in the country. A school in a location that means we won't have to move house, leaving you close to all your friends. I have done this at the beginning of a year, not the middle, to make it as easy as possible."

I shifted my feet around a little, suddenly taking an interest in the pattern of the paving stones. Why was this little speech making me so uncomfortable? I could normally sit through four or five of these in a row without so much as blinking!

Somehow I managed to drag my gaze back up to meet hers. She was smiling.

"I am doing this for you," she said softly.

And then she opened the door, and disappeared inside.

I turned, and headed for Temari's house.

The five of us (That's me, Kiba, Kin, Temari and Ten Ten, in case you haven't been paying attention) were sitting in something vaguely resembling a circle on Temari's bedroom floor.

Kin was leaning against Temari's bed, sniggering. "You're going to a private school? For _real?_"

I nodded, "Looks like it."

"You're not gonna fit in much, are you?" That from Temari.

"That's what I said!"

Ten Ten was looking thoughtful, "You never know, it might be alright actually"

Kin threw a pillow at her, which Temari caught in midair.

"Nice reflexes!" I said appreciatively.

Kin was sneering a little at Ten Ten, who was looking defiantly back at her. Kiba, who was sitting in between them, pretended to shiver.

"Is it just me, or has it gotten _cold _in here all of a sudden?" He grinned, and Akamaru barked in agreement.

Kin flicked her hair back, "All I was saying is that you don't really seem like private school material." I shrugged.

"You still gonna hang out with us?"

I gave Kiba an incredulous look, certain he was joking. But no! He was still grinning, sure, but his eyes were uncertain.

"Hell yes! What, you think a change of school is gonna change my personality? That may be my mum's intention, but it isn't mine."

Temari and Ten Ten laughed, and Kin started clapping as if I'd made some grand speech. Before long, we were all whooping and clapping, the tension of a few moments ago completely forgotten.

I live closer to Ten Ten than any of the others in our group, we live six minutes away from each other, so when everyone left Temari's place Ten Ten and I walked home together.

"So..." Ten Ten trailed off, looking away.

"Hm? Problem, Ten?"

"Are you planning on resisting your mum's attempt to change you?" She asked it casually, but the question was anything but.

Ten Ten and I have only been friends for about a year, since we sat together in Spanish in year 9. She wasn't linked in any other way with Kin's group, and that became obvious when you put them next to each other.

Sure, Ten was up for a bit of messing around in class. You might even get her to bunk off a day of school once in a while. But essentially she enjoyed the lessons, and wanted to get the best grades she could.

Kin, on the other hand, was what my mum would call a 'wild child'. She hated school – she only showed up at all to avoid the truancy officers – and didn't much care what she got in her exams. She intended to work as a model, or just marry someone rich. All that mattered to her was having the most fun possible.

The two of them have never gotten along. Kin thinks that Ten Ten is a killjoy, and Ten disapproves of Kin's attitude.

So, basically, Ten Ten asking me that question was her way of reminding me of all that, and wanting to know if I was going to keep trying to upset my mum.

"Ten, I'm just gonna do what I always do. I'm gonna be me, and I'm gonna enjoy it as much as possible. To be honest, I don't think going to a private school will change me at all, unless it pisses me off _so much _that I'm forced to turn suicidal!"

Ten Ten laughed, "Oh come on Ino, we all know that if you got that stressed you'd be more likely to massacre the entire student population than kill yourself!"

I gave her a wide-eyed, mock-frightened look, "Hey, don't joke about stuff like that! We don't know how bad it's gonna be!"

She shook her head, smiling.

After a pause, I confessed, "Y'know... I'm kinda nervous. About this whole school thing."

I kept my eyes firmly fixed on the pavement, aware that this sort of statement was very not me. But hey, if it reassured my friend that I wasn't gonna turn all stupid the minute I was out of her sight I could put up with ditching my pride for a couple of minutes, right?

I heard a slight sigh from Ten Ten.

"Ino..."

I looked up, wondering if she'd seen through me. But no – she was just looking at me with a concerned expression.

"You'll be fine." Ten Ten held out her arms, and I leaned in for a hug. "You're pretty and funny and smart - within five minutes you'll have a million new friends who can't imagine their lives without you. And you'll still be able to call any of us if it gets to be too much for you. Okay?"

I nodded slightly against her shoulder, and she let me go. I offered a half smile, and we started walking again, in comfortable silence.


	6. Chapter 6

**_Ta-daaa! Next chapter. At long last. Thank you so much for your patience everyone! I only have one more exam left -does celebratory dance- but then I'm going away for a week -bangs head against nearest wall- so I'll try to write as fast as I can when I get back. As usual, thanks to all my regular reviewers: Aiko of the Akatsuki, Unbreakable Fighter and I Like Angst. Thank you also to my beta reader ShelvesInTheCloset. I hope this chapter is as funny as it was supposed to be!_**

**_Disclaimer:_**

**_I don't own Naruto. Never have, never will. If I did... well I wouldn't actually make this story happen because it just wouldn't be the same show without ninjas. But you get my point ^^_**

**Study In Contrasts**

The uniform for Konoha High wasn't bad, I guess, as uniforms go.

A light green shirt, long sleeved for the winter term, a black skirt and a forest green jacket and/or jumper. None of it made me look fat, and the colours didn't clash. All in all, it could have been worse.

But let's bear in mind – I hadn't been forced to wear a uniform at my last school. Seriously, this is sixth form! I'd been waiting years to be able to wear my own clothes to school, and now it was all being snatched away. Insert heart-wrenching sob here.

Okay, it didn't bother me _that _much, but it was just one more thing on a massive list of things I had to be unhappy about on my first day at a new school.

I dragged myself downstairs for breakfast, and found mum putting her coat on by the front door.

"Where are _you _going?" It was the first time in a long time that question had been asked this way round, and she looked as surprised as I was!

"Um, Ino, I'm going to work"

"What about me?" My voice came out slightly whiney, and I winced inwardly – I was already sounding like a spoiled rich brat!

Mum raised an eyebrow, evidently unimpressed, "What do you mean?"

"Aren't you driving me to school?"

She shook her head, amused but also bored of the conversation. I guess she sensed my outrage and disbelief (The facial expression may have given it away), because she decided to explain further,

"You always managed to get to your old school fine, didn't you? Why should I start ferrying you around now?"

"Mum, for one thing, Kiba always drove me to school. In case you hadn't noticed, I don't know a single person at 'Konoha High'," - Yes, I put on a snooty voice when I said the school's name. I'm 16! What do you expect? - "For another thing, in the past it was a forty minute walk to school, something I could do if I had enough advance warning. This dumb private school will take an hour to walk to!"

"You could take a bus"

I looked at her in amazement, "You couldn't have told me that this would be necessary, oh, I don't know, a few days ago? So I could maybe look up what buses will take me there? Or did you think it would be more fun to just watch me be late on my first day? I thought this was the sort of thing-"

"Bye Ino!"

Mum had finished getting herself together, and with that cheery goodbye (I hate morning people) she slipped out of the door, and was gone.

Great.

I pulled out my phone, and reeled off a quick text to Kiba,

"Hey, do you know what bus will take me to Konoha Hell-hole? -Ino"

Halfway through a bowl of cereal, I got a reply,

"Be outside your house in ten minutes, and I'll drive you. You're lucky you have a friend as awesome and generous as me! -Kiba"

I grinned, texting him back,

"And so modest too! See you soon then, THANK YOU! -Ino"

Then, it was a simple matter of finding a school bag, gathering up some pens and pencils, putting on my black wedge heels, doing my hair and makeup... anything else? Oh yeah, settling myself down on the front doorstep to wait for Kiba, who was _fifteen minutes_ later than he'd said.

My phone rang after I'd been waiting for ten minutes already,

"Heey! Ino"

"Kiba, where the hell are you?! School starts in twenty minutes, I don't want to walk into class late on the first day!"

I heard laughing on the other end, "Jeez, what's so funny?"

"Oh, nothing. Have you turned into a goody-goody already?" More laughing.

"No," I sighed, "I'm just gonna stick out enough, coming in two weeks into the term... I want to avoid drawing attention to myself as much as possible."

"I get it, it's cool, I can definitely get you there on time. I'm basically round the corner anyways!"

There was more laughter – except this sounded more like giggles, too high pitched to be Kiba, was he driving Hana somewhere as well? – and he hung up.

True to his word, Kiba was at my house within about three minutes. And it didn't take long for me to figure out why he was late!

The roof of his car was down, and, sitting in various places and squashed together like a tin of sardines, the entire gang was in there with him.

Kin was perched on the headrest of the front passenger seat, with her feet on the actual seat, either side of Ten Ten, who was sitting in the more traditional way of bum-on-seat, feet-on-floor.

Temari was in the middle of the back row of seats, with Dosu and Zaku on either side (although Zaku was standing up to wave at me, as if there was any chance I hadn't spotted them!)

I laughed in amazement, and Temari jumped out of the car to come over and hug me.

"This is awesome, guys!" I exclaimed, grinning from ear to ear.

Ten Ten was next up, smiling encouragingly at my uniform. "It looks good on you, Ino!"

Kin peered at me through narrowed eyes before beckoning me over.

"Ino, you're gonna have to come sit in the front seat so I can work on you."

I laughed again, "Sounds sinister! 'Sides, I thought I was looking alright!"

Kiba interrupted, tapping his watch meaningfully, "You guys can do what you like, as soon as I get this car moving. We don't want to make Ino late now, do we?"

Temari giggled again – so that was what that mysterious laughter was about! – and started dragging me back to the car.

Kiba did actually manage to get me to school ten minutes early, even if it was a terrifying car journey that I never want to repeat, _ever_. I never knew a car could move so fast...

It was worth it though, for the entrance we made!

Oh, but I don't want to get ahead of myself here.

First off, I'll give you a rundown of what Kin had done to me while I'd been sitting in the seat previously occupied by Ten Ten.

First off, she'd changed my makeup. I'd left the house with a basic, understated look. I didn't have the time to do anything amazing (plus, I'll confess, I'm actually not that good with makeup. I can handle mascara and lip gloss, but beyond that... it's best left to the professionals!), and I really couldn't be bothered to impress anyone.

But as Kin pointed out, I wanted to make a good first impression, right?

She'd decided to focus most on my eyes, since they're pretty striking. Kin had given them an outline of black eyeliner to make them stand out, and a coat of midnight blue mascara. She finished that up with a subtle layer of eyeshadow in almost the exact shade of baby blue/aqua blue as my eyes.

The only other makeup Kin felt I needed was a layer of deep red lipstick. I have to admit, it looked good. I looked about two years older!

Finishing off the look with some clip on earrings (small gold hoops, highly underrated in my opinion!), all she had left to do was make me roll up my skirt a bit, to show off a bit more leg, and undo the top two buttons of my shirt.

So, all that had taken about five minutes, the whole of which I'd spent in a _highly _unsafe position, kneeling on the front passenger seat with my back to the front windscreen, holding onto the car door for support! And I'd just realised that Kiba was driving at about three hundred miles an hour.

Okay, maybe closer to two hundred and fifty, but who's counting?

Anywho. I was naturally a little anxious about the safety of driving at that speed, so I turned myself round in my seat so that I was facing the front of the car, and proceeded to calmly and reasonably express my concerns to the driver.

"Kiba?! What the _hell_ are you _playing at?_ Slow this car down _now_, mutt!" I screamed in his ear. Politely.

"Huh?"

"You have the nerve to look confused! Look at the speedometer you moron!"

He threw a cursory glance at the car's fancy dashboard, before looking back at me, as puzzled as before.

"Seriously, Ino-"

"KEEP YOUR EYES ON THE ROAD! WHAT ARE YOU, INSANE? SUICIDAL?"

Do I even need to tell you that the guys in the back were in hysterics over this entire conversation? Thought not. Temari was sitting in the same way as Kin, but on the back row of seats, and she was laughing so hard that Dosu felt the need to grab her legs, in case she fell out.

Not that he wasn't _also_ chuckling away.

As if impending death by car crash is (or was) somehow amusing!

I must have been showing some signs of distress (though knowing me they were _extremely _subtle and difficult to pick up on), because Kiba slowed down by a token two miles per hour.

"Ino, I thought you wanted to get there on time?"

I sighed, exasperated, "Yes Kiba, I would also rather like to get there _alive_."

Ten Ten, from her position next to Temari on the top of the back row of seats, obviously had a better view of the road ahead than me, as she was the one to kick the back of my seat.

"I don't think you have to worry any longer Ino, we're about to arrive!"

And sure enough, if I sat a little straighter in my seat, I could just about see the tell-tale green slate roof of Konoha High up ahead.

How delightful.

I gave a slight "eep" of surprise, as something unexpectedly bounced off the side of my head. Looking down, I saw the end of an ipod connection lead.

"You want me to put my ipod on?"

Kiba rolled his eyes, "Ya think?"

"No need for sarcasm," I replied haughtily, "You might have been wanting my to plug Kin into the car for recharging."

Kin was, unfortunately, ideally placed to whack me in the head. "Ino, was that supposed to be an insult? Try harder next time. That didn't even mean anything!"

I laughed, connecting my ipod to the car speakers.

"Ok, so what should I play?"

Temari called out from the back, "Anything you like, just put it on fast! We have to get heads turning when we drive through those gates."

I scrolled quickly through my list of songs, easily finding "Thnx fr th Mmrs" by Fall Out Boy. Just in time to turn onto the road that would take us up to the front entrance.

Thanks to Kiba's insane driving, a journey that usually takes between 15 and 20 minutes, got me to school in 10. I don't even want to know how that happened. But it had its advantages! Namely, that we arrived 10 minutes before the beginning of the first lesson. Meaning that there were hundreds of students either on their way up the road, or waiting for friends in front of the massive oak doors into the school.

And I swear on the life of my favourite pair of purple-patent-leather-high-heels, _all of them _were looking at us.

Not surprising really, we must have made quite a sight!

The shiny red convertible, roof down, cruising down the middle of the road (Kiba had slowed down so that everyone could get a good gawk. And why drive on the correct side of the road when there's nobody coming in the opposite direction? Kiba's philosophy, _not _mine). One teenager in the front seat, another _on _the front seat, Two sitting and two half standing in the back, and the driver, natch.

Only one of them wearing the Konoha High uniform as well!

Rock music blaring from the speakers,

_One night and one more time,_

_Thanks for the memories, even though they weren't so great_

_He tastes like you only sweeter,_

_One night, yeah and one more time,_

_Thanks for the memories, thanks for the memories,_

_He, he tastes like you, only sweeter_

Their faces made a _very _interesting picture, let me assure you!

Some displayed irritation, some amusement, some disgust – the snobs – some seemed surprised or confused – I mean, seriously, was there _nobody _here like me? – others a little nervous.

Temari started laughing, waving and blowing kisses to the kids lining the pavements. None of us were at all surprised to see a few guys waving back, but Kin immediately decided that she had to get in on the act, winking suggestively at groups of sixth form boys.

Fun as all of this was we had to reach the car park eventually! Kiba came to a stop directly in front of the doors, music still on, and Kin hopped out to open the door for me.

I turned to my group of friends, all smiling supportively at me, and I almost felt like crying.

"How lucky am I?" I thought, looking over the six of them.

Kin, holding up a hand for a high five.

Temari, giving me a thumbs up from the backseat.

Ten Ten, grinning in excitement.

Dosu and Zaku, checking out random girls passing by. Jerks.

And Kiba, of course, winking cheesily and drumming his hands on the steering wheel in time to the music.

I gave Kin the high five she was waiting for, aimed a cheerful, but still super cool, wave at the car, and started walking up the stone steps.

Two stairs up, I remembered my ipod, and turned to Kiba, who was just starting to reverse out of the car park.

"Kiba! Hey! Music!"

Without even looking at me, he disconnected my ipod, shutting off the music instantly, and casually chucked it in my direction.

I caught it deftly (and _why_ exactly are you looking surprised? I have excellent hand-eye coordination!), turned on my heel and walked into the reception area.

Having been sitting in the headmistresses office for approximately seven million hours (or twenty minutes, if you want to be all _accurate_), I had made several discoveries.

One, that the secretary was the single most focused person I'd ever encountered. I'd hummed little songs to myself, tapped out random rhythms on my knees and the wall, even paced up and down a little. That woman did nothing but stare intently at her computer, and type the odd word. Unreal.

Two, that there wasn't a single ugly person at the school. I must have watched about one thousand students walk past the door, and the worst I could say about any of their looks was that they were "A little plain". Some of their figures could use work – I saw one boy who looked like he weighed close to four times his skinny friend, but even he couldn't be honestly described as _ugly_.

My third and final observation: the only person in the entire school who arrived late, was the woman who was supposed to be running it. No student walked past after the eight thirty bell signaling the start of lessons.

The head teacher herself though? Didn't show up until half an hour into the first lesson.

I would describe that as irresponsible, to be perfectly honest with you.

On the other hand, credit where credit is due – her entrance was nothing if not memorable!

"SHIZUNE!"

A voice bellowed from just outside the door. The yell was followed swiftly by a 5"4 tornado, tearing through the doorway and coming to a halt in front of the receptionist's desk.

Wait a minute – you mean that tornado is my new _**HEADMISTRESS???**_

"Shizune, I need some of that -"

She was cut off by the receptionist's meaningful cough. Blond hair spun, then settled around the face of the head teacher as she turned her head to investigate the direction Shizune was nodding in. I found myself face to face with a set of amber eyes, giving me a frank once-over.

"As you can see, Tsunade-sama, the new pupil has arrived!"

I narrowed my eyes a little in confusion, "Sama? Isn't that, like, a Japanese thing?"

Tsunade nodded slightly, her eyes still fixed on mine, "Shizune here has lived in Japan since she was three. She can't get used to saying my name on it's own. Anyway, wanna come sit down?"

I followed Tsunade over to a large wooden desk, on the far side of the room. While she began searching through stacks of untidy papers, I amused myself by watching a PE lesson out of the large windows.

Some guy in green was just setting off for a run, his class trailing behind him, when the headmistress located the file containing my record.

"Right. First day today. Ino Yamanaka. Right." She muttered absentmindedly. Suddenly, she looked up, shooting me another sharp glance.

"Says here you've had some trouble at your previous schools."

I nodded hesitantly, still unsure what impression I wanted to give this woman. I wasn't stupid – I could see the benefits of playing their game and being a good student and "productive member of the school community". But was I ready to give up who I was? A person who did what she wanted, when she wanted, consequences be damned. The person I'd been working on since the events of six years ago-

My train of thought was completely derailed by the head teacher.

"You'll not cause trouble like that here."

I raised an eyebrow – more out of habit than because I decided it would be a good idea! – and she just continued to look at me.

"Sure, miss."

She shook her head, "You call the teachers here by their names."

Now both my eyebrows were up near my hairline. "Excuse me?"

"Yeah, so I'm Tsunade, Shizune is Shizune. No Mrs this or Mr that."

I couldn't help but let out a snigger at that, "Is this some kind of weird private school thing?"

"I suppose." She shrugged. "Anyway. Moving on. Those shoes are inappropriate for school."

I looked down at my black wedge heels. What was wrong with them? They were one of my favourite pairs for every-day use. Black patent leather, three and a half inch heel. They weren't open-toe, in fact they looked a bit like normal black ballet pumps with wedge heels attached.

"Inappropriate how?"

She snorted, waving generally at the shoes, "Wedge heels? At school? The most heel you're allowed on school shoes here is one inch. I expect you to be wearing more suitable footwear tomorrow."

I rolled my eyes, and folded my arms. I guess I'd decided to go with 'defiant'. I was trying to avoid Tsunade's eyes – I knew she'd be giving me _serious _evils – when there was a confident knock at the door.

"That'll probably be the person I told to show you around," Tsunade commented as Shizune went to open the door.

I turned around to get a look at who I was going to be tormenting for the next couple of days. Imagine my surprise as I came face to face with pink hair and jade green eyes.

"Hey Ino. It's been a while, hasn't it?"

Well this was unexpected.

"Sure has. How've you been, Sakura?"


	7. Chapter 7

**_I debated for ages about whether to wait and upload this when I had more of chapter 8 finished, or to just put it online early and hurry up with my writing! I guess it's obvious what I decided in the end ^^; I'm just so happy with all the reviews, faves and alerts I've had over the past few days! Consider this a 'thank you' to all my readers!! Without you guys, I wouldn't still be writing this. As always, a special thank you to my regular reviewers, especially Aiko of the Akatsuki who is the only person who has reviewed every chapter and is continuing to do so! -hugs Aiko- thank you so much ^^. Also, thanks to my beta reader Shelvesinthecloset. Unfortunately, this has been the last chapter he'll be able to beta read due to time issues, so I'll probably be editing my own work for a while. _**

**_Just a note to the people who have this on alert but haven't been reviewing - I don't mind if you don't have anything to say about it, but if you do think of something I would really really love to hear from you ^^. Even, maybe especially, if what you want to say is "So-and-so was out of character here" or "You've made a mistake there". _**

**_Okay, sorry for the long author's note ^^;_**

**_Disclaimer_**

**_I don't own Naruto, the only thing of mine in this story is the plot. I'm not making any money out of this._**

**Study In Contrasts**

I followed Sakura down wide corridors, past what felt like hundreds of classrooms. The floor was dark wood, very classy, the walls painted a light green. It may not sound like it would work, but it did.

Every five meters or so, we'd walk past a door set into the mint green wall. Most were occupied with classes, either listening to a teacher or writing in neat, uniform workbooks.

I looked at the girl I was following. One inch shorter than me, her pink hair reaching halfway down her neck – a lot shorter than the last time I'd seen her.

"Where exactly are we going?" I didn't mean to sound sulky, but somehow my voice came out like a four-year-old's.

"Well, I was thinking we'd start in the sixth form common room. After that we can go on a tour of the school. We'll pick up your schedule from Tsunade after lunch, and I'll take you round and introduce you to your teachers. That way you'll see again how to get to all your classes. Then you can go home, I guess."

When did she get so, I dunno, confident? Back when we were friends, you'd be hard pushed to get more than three words out of her at a time. And when she _did _speak, it was like she was apologizing for it the whole time.

I thought back to the day I met her, when we were both six.

_It was the end of the first day of the first year of primary school. Most of the kids were playing in the park next to the school, while we waited for parents to come pick us up. _

_I was happily playing 'it' with a new group of friends, when I spotted the one girl on her own, sitting over on the path._

_I always was a curious kid._

_As I got closer, I remembered that I'd seen her earlier, a group of boys laughing at her. What was it they were laughing about?_

_She looked up as I approached, and I remembered._

"_Hey, aren't you the one they're always teasing cos you've got such a big forehead?"_

_She peered up at me through her pink fringe,_

"_Wh-who are you?"_

"_Who, me? That's easy. My name is Ino Yamanaka. Who are you?"_

_She mumbled something from behind her hands._

"_Huh? Hellooo!" I laughed, "I can't hear you! Let's try that again, okay? Who are you?"_

"_My name is **Sakura**!" She practically yelled._

"_That's better!" I pushed her bangs back with my hand. "So this is the famous forehead, huh? Woah, it is kinda big! So that's why you hide it with your bangs?"_

_She nodded, still sniffling._

"_That's dumb. It just makes it worse! Makes you look like a sheepdog..."_

_Her shoulders shook, and she looked like she was going to start sobbing all over again. I thought for a moment._

"_So you're Sakura, huh."_

"_Mm-hm"_

"_Hey, y'know what? I've got something special for you. Come back here tomorrow, ok?"_

The next day, I had brought in a ribbon to use to keep her hair off her face. We were like sisters from that day on.

I suddenly realised that Sakura had stopped up ahead and was looking at me expectantly.

"Oh, er, yeah. Sounds good" I muttered.

Sakura let out a peal of laughter, half walking and half skipping down the corridor toward me. She stopped a couple of steps away, head tilted, smiling at me.

"Ino..."

I lifted a shoulder dismissively, "Yeah?"

"It's been, I dunno, years! And now you show up at Konoha High?"

I looked away. There was a pause. Did I imagine that I heard her sigh?

"So. Sixth form common room coming up!" Sakura chirped.

Ok, even an idiot could see that the facilities at Konoha High were impressive.

The sixth form common room was big, with several beanbags clustered around a massive TV at the far end. There were sofas too, about eight in total, facing each other in pairs around the room. A kitchen area with a fridge, a toaster, a kettle and a microwave. A couple of vending machines in one corner.

I nodded appreciatively as Sakura showed me round.

"The rest of the school can get a little crowded," she was explaining, "since this is a secondary school as well as a sixth form college, but this room is just for us. Oh, what A-levels are you taking?"

I closed my eyes to think, "Hmm... Spanish, chemistry, English lit and art." I felt a slight pang as I realised I'd never again spend a Spanish lesson flicking bits of paper at Ten Ten's head. I'd also probably never see my art teacher again. Which was seriously a shame – Mr Hyuuga was the only teacher in the school who I learned anything from in all my time there.

"I take chemistry too! That, biology, maths and drama."

I couldn't help but smile at Sakura's enthusiasm despite myself. "Drama huh? What's that like?"

She shrugged modestly "It's pretty hard work. I'm a lot better at the written side than the practical sections."

"Figures."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I was surprised to hear an edge of irritation in her voice. Funny. Just as I was sure that she was exactly how I remembered her.

"I don't know really. I guess I just never pegged you for the type to get up on stage."

"Oh," she laughed "Yeah, I know. Me neither, to be honest!" She looked away, and I saw the hint of a blush on her face.

Interesting.

I was about to ask her for more information – why the blush? Why take drama if you don't think it suits you? The two questions were obviously connected – but I felt myself freeze up. Maybe seven years ago when we were friends. Not today though. Not now, after all the time that had passed.

Sakura seemed oblivious to my moment of uncertainty.

"Right. Time to head down to the canteen. I cannot _wait_ to introduce you to everybody!"

As I lined up behind Sakura and her blue/black-haired friend (Yes, really. But if you think about it, next to Sakura's bubble-gum hair blue isn't all that unusual!) I sincerely hoped that this wasn't the 'everybody' she'd referred to.

I always knew she was a bit of a wallflower, but even for Sakura this would be extreme.

"Okay" Sakura pulled me forwards a little to bring me into the conversation "Ino, this is Hinata. Hinata, meet Ino."

Hinata bowed her head a little and smiled shyly. "Um, nice to meet you Ino. I really hope you like Konoha High. It's certainly a very good school." Her face flushed and her words trailed off into another uncertain smile.

I flashed her a wide grin in response. "Nice to meet you to Hinata. Y'know, you kinda remind me of how Sakura was when we first met."

Sakura laughed and Hinata's eyes widened. "Have you met before?"

"Yup," Sakura said cheerfully "Ino was pretty much my first and only friend in primary school!"

"Good times" I added, laughing. Hinata seemed a little more relaxed after that, and the next time she smiled at me I noticed something familiar about her eyes. They were an unbelievable colour, the palest white – and the pupils seemed to be the same colour too. "Hey, I think I've seen you around before!"

Hinata's face switched instantly into one of complete surprise and confusion. It would have been funny if I wasn't trying so hard to figure out where I knew her from!

Suddenly it struck me.

"You have the same eyes as my art teacher. And I've seen you around my school as well, hanging around with his son Neji."

I couldn't believe it had taken me so long to realise! This girl was Ten Ten's rival!

"Oh, um, yes, that is, my father teaches art at the local state school" Hinata was babbling.

"Hold up," she froze, "Mr Hyuuga is your father?" She nodded hesitantly.

"Yes, the eyes are a family trait"

"So that would make Neji, what, your brother?" I was on the edge of laughing again now – We (meaning Ten Ten and I) had clearly gotten completely the wrong end of the stick!

"Um, not exactly. We're cousins. But his father died several years ago, he's been raised like another son to my father, or a brother to Hanabi and I."

"Hanabi's your sister then? Older or younger?"

Hinata grimaced slightly, "Younger. By five years."

"What's with the face?" I teased "Isn't it fun having a younger sister to boss around?"

"It's not really like that in my family. Do you have any siblings?"

The reference to my own family brought me back to Earth with a bump. I'd completely forgotten how much I hated the school for a moment there! Hinata must have felt me withdraw from the conversation, as she blushed again, and ducked her head apologetically.

"I hope you didn't feel I was prying."

I frowned – the last thing I wanted to do was upset her – but Sakura hastily stepped in to salvage the situation before I could say anything.

"What are you guys thinking you'll get for lunch?"

There was a surprisingly wide range of food; salads, pastas with various sauces, sandwiches of course, a main meal and a vegetarian version of the same, yogurts and flapjacks.

I stared at the options for a moment before Hinata and Sakura started picking things off the shelves.

"Er, what would you recommend?"

Sakura laughed, "Bit daunting, isn't it? My favourite is the pasta, but Hinata always _always _has a tuna and cucumber sandwich. There are drinks in the – oh!"

That was all the warning I had before my head was almost knocked off by Sakura's flailing arm, as she waved at someone on the other side of the room. A flash of blond hair even more yellow than my own became visible, as somebody stood up on a chair to wave back.

"Oh jeez, typical Naruto!" Sakura giggled. I turned to Hinata for an explanation.

"Naruto is... well, he's... he can be..."

Helpful.

With Hinata completely unable to shed light on the situation, I looked back over at the table with the blond kid.

Oh dear God. And Sakura said the food was daunting.

Two tables, normally seating four, had been pulled together to make a six-seater around which was sat a group of four teens. Presumably the 'everyone' Sakura had been referring to earlier. They were too far away for me to make out individual faces, but I did recognise the fat kid from earlier.

This was exactly what I'd been looking forward to least. Trying to find a new group of friends.

In some ways then it was a good thing that Sakura was willing to take me under her wing. But – and I mean this in the nicest possible way – her friends were unlikely to be the sort of people I wanted to hang out with.

And did I really want myself linked with this group on my first day?

It could kill my chances of getting in with one of the more fun groups, which would be difficult enough anyway! I mean by year 11 the friendship groups are pretty much set, so the chances of getting accepted into an established clique is virtually nil.

I felt a hand tug gently at my sleeve, and turned my head to meet Hinata's questioning gaze.

"Um, Ino? Is something wrong?"

"Mmm, not really." I flashed her a brief – fake – smile. The one I always used to get Ten Ten off my back.

She smiled back at me. Just as easily fooled.

"Oh, but Ino, you really don't have to worry about sitting with us. I'm certain that everyone will like you."

It's a good thing she blushed and looked away, otherwise she probably would have been a little freaked out by the shocked expression on my face!

Once I'd picked out what I wanted to eat I followed Hinata and Sakura towards the till, and then over towards the rest of their friends.

They were bound to be a bunch of nerds anyway, I told myself. How hard could it be to impress them?

But as we approached the group I saw that I was going to have to, at least partially, rethink my strategy.

There was the blond, who had already been identified as Naruto, the fat kid, some boy dressed completely in green, and there on the far side of the table was none other than Sasuke Uchiha.

The other two girls reached their seats before me, and Sakura turned around to give me an encouraging smile.

"Right, guys – this is Ino Yamanaka!" I lifted my hand to shoulder height in a lazy approximation of a wave, and got a slightly more enthusiastic response from the boys at the table!

Naruto immediately leapt to his feet – knocking over his pot of whatever he was eating in the process – and beamed at me.

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki! It's really great to meet'cha Ino!"

The boy in green was only slightly less reserved. He stood up as well and held out a hand for me to shake.

"I am Lee. It is an honour to make your acquaintance! I am sure we shall enjoy long hours of studying together, to increase our knowledge!"

I shot a slightly panicked look at Hinata, but the traitor was too busy making eyes at Naruto to notice. She obviously had a serious crush on the guy – the question was, what on earth did she see in him?

Much as I would have enjoyed dwelling on the possibilities, I still had two introductions to endure. The chubby boy didn't feel the need to get to his feet to say hello – he just nodded at me with a shy smile, and a quiet "Choji. Nice to meet you."

And last of all... I turned to Sasuke.

"We've met."

Was that all he could say? Well I certainly wasn't about to let him get away with that!

"Met?" I laughed, "We were pretty much in the same class all through primary school! You, me and Sakura."

"We were hardly close though, back then." This was Sakura's contribution. I raised an eyebrow at her, and she continued, "Well sure – you and I were inseparable, Ino! But Sasuke wasn't really friends with us."

I conceded her point with a shrug and a nod, and Hinata, Sakura and I sat ourselves down.

"Hey Sakura! How's your day been so far then?!" Naruto asked (sorry, asked? I mean yelled, don't I?), and the conversation started up again.

And that was the moment that I'd been anticipating. Because the new girl is really only a novelty for a few minutes – if that! And all too soon people fall back into their normal group habits. The patterns of conversation and in-joking that mark them out as a close band of friends. And so, of course, I was left on the outskirts of the easy chatter and laughter.

Kin, Temari and I had done it often enough to kids trying to weasel their way into our clique – it was interesting to say the least to be on the other side of it!

I know it sounds like I'm whining. I'm not – honest! But I'm sure you can empathize – it's difficult not to have images in your head of how you want a situation to go. Even if you know what's _likely _to happen, there's a part of you that's hoping that it'll be different.

That everybody will want to talk to you.

That everybody will include you.

That everybody will _love _you.

_What's with the moping?_

Oh, a good question! Just me feeling sorry for myself, I suppose. Me being irritatingly self-obsessed, what else is new? And for the record, that was definitely not as bitter as it sounded!

_Helloooooo!_

Hang on a minute.

A hand suddenly started waving around haphazardly about two inches from my face.

"Are you okay?" A concerned voice shouted in my ear. I tilted my head to get a better view of the vivid blue eyes fixed on my face.

"You know Naruto, you kind of have a voice like a foghorn."

His eyes narrowed in concentration, "Is that a good thing?"

I smiled gently and patted him on the shoulder. "I'll let you work that one out for yourself."

I couldn't help but laugh at his mystified expression, and I have to confess that it was more than a little satisfying to find that Choji, Lee and Sakura laughed with me.

It's a start, I thought to myself. A definite start.

It took almost an hour to get round all of the teacher introductions. I can't help but wonder if it was the headteacher's intention that every teacher be fit to be locked up in a psych ward?

You think I'm joking?!

Okay, so my English teacher was pale to the point of looking like he just crawled out of a grave. When Sakura introduced him as Orochimaru, he – no kidding – winked at me. Actually winked. Like a sleazy old man. WINKED.

I had to suppress a shudder.

We headed to the Spanish classroom next, where I met Asuma. He was fairly normal, I guess, except for the fact that when we got in he was smoking out of the window. I'm getting the impression that setting a good example isn't top of the list of priorities for staff here!

After that was Chemistry, where I met Anko. Whose first comment to me was, "Hm. Fresh blood." Which, y'know, could have been funny. If she didn't say it with a truly creepy smirk, while holding a scalpel. I mean seriously, what's a scalpel doing in a chemistry lab anyway? Don't they belong in biology?!

Naturally, I was sort of wondering at this point what horror would have been dredged up for my art teacher. And I was really dreading it, because in my last school my art teacher was a-ma-zing. Mr Hyuuga was everything you could ask for in a teacher; patient, supportive, didn't take any crap, and an incredible artist.

He was the only teacher who I actually payed attention to in that place.

Mostly because he was the only teacher who bothered to pay attention to me, after hearing horror stories of what a 'difficult student' I was!

So my personal bar was set pretty high for art teachers. And when I walked into the art room after Sakura and came face to mask with my new teacher? I was less than impressed.

Yes, the teacher was wearing a mask. Not a Halloween-type plastic thing, but a cloth mask covering his mouth and nose. And on top of that what looked like a bandage, but in a blue material similar to the mask rather than normal medicinal bandage material, covering his left eye.

I know, I know. I thought it too. Very. Very. Weird.


	8. Chapter 8

**_Hello again everyone! lol. I'm going to be away for a week (starting tomorrow) so I had to make sure I got this chapter uploaded tonight! I've been sitting at my laptop for the last twenty minutes or so trying to get it edited. If there are mistakes, please let me know and I'll fix them as soon as I get back. I haven't had time for a full edit - I literally only finished the chapter five minutes ago! Anyway, I hope you enjoy it. The usual thanks to my amazing and inspiring reviewers, Aiko of the Akatsuki and Miss Hydrangea being the current regulars! Also thank you to everyone who's left me feedback. I appreciate it when somebody takes the time to let me know what they think!_**

**_Disclaimer:_**

**_I don't own Naruto, this story hasn't made me a penny and it never will!_**

**Study In Contrasts**

"I've saved you for last, Kakashi!" Sakura said with a grin.

"Oh?" His one visible eyebrow lifted slightly, though whether that was due to irritation or amusement was a mystery to me.

"Yup," Sakura replied cheerfully, "This is Ino, she's gonna be joining your art class."

"Is that so?"

I stepped forward a little to smile at him. "Yes, it is. I'm Ino Yamanaka."

"Do you enjoy art?"

I frowned a little, "Art as in looking at paintings, or art as in painting paintings?"

"Both. Either. Do you enjoy art?"

I gave a short sigh, frustrated with the strangeness of the situation, and closed my eyes to consider the question.

"I'm good at it. I enjoy it when I'm painting on my own, but I hate being told what sort of art to do – what to 'portray' and what materials to use."

When I opened my eyes again Kakashi was still staring at me intently.

"Hm. Okay. Do you have your schedule yet?"

"No," Sakura cut in "We were just about to go see Tsunade for that."

Kakashi nodded solemnly, and then his one eye creased in what I guessed would have been a smile had his face been visible.

"Well. I'll see you soon then Ino. I look forward to seeing some of your work."

"Er, right. Bye then."

I followed Sakura quickly out of the room, eager to put some distance between myself and the increasingly bizarre staff of my new school.

I had a look at my new timetable on the way back from school.

Tsunade had been rather abrupt when giving me the schedule, but I put that down to the fact that her breath smelled a little of sake. I guess _she_ had enjoyed her lunch break!

I checked my mobile, hoping for a text or call from mum offering me a lift home, letting out an irate sigh. No messages. Surprise surprise.

Sakura probably would have given me a lift, if I'd asked, she spent almost twenty minutes telling me about the car her parents had bought her for her 17th birthday, but it was still the middle of her school day – I was only allowed to go home early because it was my first day – and if she was still the geek I'd known in primary school then she'd hate to miss lessons.

Besides. I didn't really want to ask for her help.

I got my i-pod out of my bag and found "Circus" by Britney Spears.

I'd like to make it absolutely clear at this point that I am **NOT**, by **ANY STRETCH OF THE IMAGINATION** A Britney fan.

(Not that I have anything against her personally, but some of her music makes me want to retch.)

It's just that I can identify a little with the lyrics of that song specifically. I like to be in charge.

I still remember the day Kin found it on my playlist.

"_Oh, you are joking" She said gleefully, her dark eyes flashing._

"_What've you found?" Minion number one (that'd be Dosu) inquired in a less than interested tone._

"_Boys, we have Britney."_

_Her trained monkeys sneered and sniggered in typical henchman fashion._

"_How bad? Is it terminal?" I suppose the jerk thought he was being funny._

"_Almost definitely. Looks like two whole albums. And all the best songs are on here too! Oh look, my personal favourite," Kin put on a high-pitched, breathy voice "Oops!... I did it again. Geez, this girl couldn't be less cool if she tried."_

_As if it matters what music people like to listen to. But I flushed anyway, feeling understandably humiliated._

_It's a funny thing. Some people get defensive when they're embarrassed, some stutter, some shout. I get very cold._

"_Give that back, Kin."_

_I kept my voice very controlled, eyes narrowed in as menacing a way as I could manage._

_She raised a perfectly plucked eyebrow, "Just having a bit of fun, Ino. I'll give it back when I'm good and ready."_

_I raised my chin slightly, lifting one corner of my mouth as subtly as I could manage. I meant to give an impression of control and detached amusement. Every movement I made was both instinctive and calculated._

_I leaned forwards suddenly. It was just about two inches, but Kin flinched. That was all I needed to know that I'd turned the tables._

"_Give me the i-pod."_

_The girl opposite me, and it was the first time I'd really thought of her as a 'girl' like that, was frozen in a moment of indecision._

_I decided to risk speaking again, cooling my tone even further._

"_I said give it to me, bitch."_

_Minion number two made his first move of the game, shifting one foot forwards a little and straightening up. Scare tactics, like a cobra flaring it's hood in order to appear more intimidating._

_I flashed him a glance before snorting derisively and turning my attention to the viper still holding my i-pod._

_She flicked her long hair, "Zaku, chill. For God's sake, fucking breathe why don't you. And you," She thrust the mp3 player in my direction, still not looking at me, "can have this back. You know the newer one's out already."_

_I took it with a wide smile that didn't touch my eyes._

"_Thanks Kin."_

_She bared her teeth at me in return – a pathetic attempt at a grin._

"_Anytime."_

That was the first time I ever really spoke to Kin, and it was the first incident of many in the period of time leading up to my acceptance into her group.

And that day I went home and deleted all the Britney songs from my i-tunes. Since then, I haven't been able to listen to most of them without remembering that face-off.

See this is the thing with Kin: even if you win against her, you lose. That's one of the many reasons that it pays to be with her, rather than against her.

But don't get the wrong idea! She isn't all bad.

She'll stick up for her friends, she won't hesitate to lend you stuff (including money!) whenever you need or want it. Most importantly, she's fun. She always has something to do in the evening, something to get you out of the house. When I arrived at that school her reputation was legendary, and the parties had a lot to do with that. That was why I singled her out.

That reminded me. I had texts to send! I started off with one to Ten Ten:

"Hey! Big news! Y'know that Hyuuga guy you've been crushing on since the dawn of time? OF COURSE YOU DO! Y'know the girl that he always has following him around? WELL SO DO I NOW! She's called Hinata.... HYUUGA! She's his cousin! The coast is clear!

(Don't go doing anything rash now!)

-Ino"

Then a quick message to Kiba:

"I'm alive. Yes, really. Call me later, we'll talk about how school is in the land of more-money-than-sense!

-Ino"

And last but not least, one to Kin:

"Dear GOD let there be a good party on tonight. I feel contaminated by the geek-itude. Get back to me ASAP,

-Ino"

And then I put my phone away and started walking again. Ten minutes down, fifty more to go.

Mum wasn't back when I arrived – probably at a meeting or something – so I got a packet of crisps out of the cupboard and a coke out of the fridge before heading up to my room.

I kicked my shoes off and spent a moment enjoying the feeling of freeing my feet. Those shoes were _definitely_ not made for walking in. Maybe it would be a good idea to change my footwear for the next day, even if it was irritating to do what the headmistress said.

An insistent buzzing from my jacket pocket signaled the arrival of a text.

"B mine by 11. Clothes = less is more. Can't w8 2 hear bout the geeks!

-Kin"

I felt slightly irritated at her calling them geeks, similar to how you can insult your family but nobody else is allowed.

Not that I have much of a problem with people insulting my mother.

Turning up at your house the day after your tenth birthday and finding that your mum has packed up all your dad's stuff and never wants to let you see him again will do that to a mother/daughter relationship.

I squeezed my eyes tightly shut, trying to block out the memory through sheer willpower. I wasn't particularly successful. I could hear her voice in my head, clear as the day itself.

"_Ino, this is for the best."_

_I surveyed the boxes and bags piled in the front hallway, eyes wide with confusion._

"_Mum... why is all dad's stuff in the hall?"_

"_We've been arguing a lot lately, as you may have realised"_

_My voice was almost devoid of emotion as I spoke._

"_Yeah. I know. You called him a lying son of a bitch yesterday, and then he said that you were a frigid-"_

"_I remember what he said, Ino."_

"_Why is all his stuff out here? What's going on?" I was getting louder, more shrill, "What's for the best? What have you done?"_

"_Ino!" She stood up, "Shush, it's ok. Dad's going away."_

"_For how long?"_

"_Forever. I hope."_

_I felt my eyes fill with shocked tears, although they didn't fall yet. This was a joke, I told myself. A very bad joke. I hardly dared to ask the question._

"_Mum, why?"_

_She sighed and shook her head._

"_Because..." She looked as if she were about to say something but then trailed off._

"_Mum?"_

"_I'm... It's... I've had enough. Okay? I've had enough of him."_

_I stared at her for a second and then sprinted up the stairs. I made it all the way to my room, throwing myself face first onto my bed before beginning to cry._

As always, when I remembered that I felt a pressure on my chest. As if my lungs and heart were being compressed. The weight of my complete helplessness pressed down on me, and I sank into my mattress.

I tasted salt, and realised that I'd begun to cry a little without noticing.

A detached part of my brain considered wiping my eyes (but that got dismissed due to the potential for mascara smearage) before I gave up on trying to hold the memory back, and really let myself sob.

The crying must have tired me out because the next thing I was aware of was the front door closing as mum got back from work.

"Hi honey, are you home?" she called from downstairs.

My voice was croaky from sleep. "Um, yeah," I replied, "I got back ages ago."

I heard her moving around downstairs. I could make out the sound of her switching the kettle on and getting a mug out of the cupboard.

"I'm great, mum, thanks for asking, and how was yours?" I muttered irritably.

I sat up and ran my fingers through my hair in an attempt to slightly flatten it out. I reached over to my phone – apparently I had two new messages.

"O_O You're joking. You are JOKING! You mean Neji's single?!?!?! NEED MORE INFO!

-Ten Ten"

Grinning, I checked the next text.

"Kin's let me know about the party this evening. If I'm gonna see you there, it'd be a good time to hear about your day =] I'm kind of on a phone restriction... thingy at the moment.

-Kiba"

I stood up and walked over to my wardrobe to check for something to wear to the party. I still had quite a while, it was only half seven at that point, but it could take a while to find something I'd be happy in.

There was a knock at the door, and I sighed heavily before calling out a reluctant "Come in"

Mum backed slowly through the doorway, hindered slightly by the two mugs of tea she was holding. She passed one to me with a tentative smile and I took it from her, too surprised to do anything else.

"So how did it go?"

I pulled a face instinctively and her eyebrows pulled together in a slight frown, "Not good?"

"Well. Not bad I guess."

There was a silence as she waited for me to elaborate, and I tried to decide whether to say more or just ask her to leave me alone. The pause was interrupted by my phone launching into its tinny ringtone.

I lunged for it.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Ino! Going to the party?" I recognised Temari's voice easily.

"Yeah, of course! You?"

"_Ob_-viously"

I glanced over at mum. She didn't seem annoyed that I had picked up the phone – she was just looking around my room and casually sipping her tea. Temari was going into the story of something some girl had said at school that day.

"And, well, you _know _what Kin is like... Ino?"

"Yeah?"

"Are you listening?"

"Yes, I am. It's just that I'm kind of in the middle of something. We can talk at the party, right?"

"Sure," thankfully Temari didn't sound annoyed with me, "I'll see you at Kin's place at eleven!"

"Ok. Bye."

I hung up and turned back to mum. Her head was tilted to one side in confusion.

"Right. Today." I moved back over to where mum was sitting and sat myself down next to her, "I ran into Sakura-"

She couldn't help but interrupt, "Sakura Haruna? The one who lived down the road before we moved?"

"That's Harun_o_. But yeah, her."

"Weren't you two friends?"

"Yes. We were-"

"What happened with that?"

"Mum!" She stopped, "Seriously, let me talk a minute. Sakura was in charge of showing me round today. She let me hang out with her and her friends at lunch and stuff."

I paused and she took the opportunity to contribute, "Is that... good?"

"Well, I guess," I sighed, "It's just... mum, I don't fit in there."

"With Sakura and her friends?"

"At that school. They're not my sort of people, and I'm not their sort of person."

I looked at mum to see how she was reacting. Her eyes were closed, her face concerned and thoughtful.

"Do you think you might be able to get along with them anyway?"

I raised my eyebrows, "Huh?"

Mum's eyes were still shut as she spoke, "Well, I guess they're not the sort of people you're used to hanging out with. But you can still see those guys, right?"

She paused and opened her eyes, but it took me a moment to realise that she meant for me to respond.

"Oh. Uh, yes. I was gonna see them tonight actually. If that's ok?"

I don't even know why I asked her that.

"We'll talk about that in a moment. But – and I'm just saying this as I think it really – surely it can't be a bad thing to talk to some other people."

I nodded.

"Because you might not feel like you fit in now, but maybe in a few weeks you'll start to find that you have more in common than you think"

I started shaking my head decisively, and mum laughed.

"Maybe not," she reached over as if to hug me and I shifted away slightly. I hadn't let mum hug me in about five years, and the instinct to shy away was strong. She put her hand on my arm instead, "But you never know. You never know how you're going to feel about something until it happens."

We sat there, both allowing it to sink in that we'd had a real conversation without arguments or accusations. It had been the most positive interaction in months!

I cleared my throat, "So... about this party?"

Mum considered the question for a moment.

"Ok, all I need to know is when, where and who with?"

Kin had found us a _proper_ party to celebrate my first day at Konoha High.

A dark room, hundreds of bodies dancing in alarmingly close proximity to each other, alcohol flowing like the Niagara Falls, music so loud that the bass line vibrated through you, the atmosphere so thick that you could practically drink it.

I thrived on parties like this.

Kin, Temari, Ten Ten, Kiba and I were standing close to the bar. Zaku was late, and Dosu had elected not to come – he said he had coursework to catch up on. I knew that he'd never hear the end of it from Kin, but obviously he'd decided that it was the lesser of two evils!

I was in dark blue four inch heels and a skirt of a similar length! I'm joking, of course. That would be extreme even for me. But it was the type of skirt that gives fathers heart attacks. In midnight blue denim, no less. I was wearing a white camisole top that glowed neon under the lights, and a blue shrug cardigan.

A new song came on, something with an insanely loud guitar part, and somebody tapped my shoulder.

I turned nonchalantly, "Yeah?"

"Wanna dance?"

I gave him a quick once-over, allowing a slow smirk to spread across my face.

"Sure, why not?"


	9. Chapter 9

_**Hello again! I know it's been a while, and once again I apologize sincerely. I have a new beta reader now! ScarletEmber, who literally beta-ed this chapter in less than an hour. THANK YOU! Also, thanks are as always due to my lovely reviewers =P Devil'sLittleBabyGirl and Miss Hydrangea, and special mention to Aiko of the Akatsuki -hugs- thank you for all your support! I've started writing another story, not a fanfic but a novel. I've literally only just begun it, but it's taking up a little of my writing time. If my chapter writing/uploading slows down even more, that's why. I promise I will finish this though! I won't give up on it halfway through. Not that we're halfway through yet! Another thing I aim to do is start making the chapters longer. I don't know if I'll manage that, but I'll see how it goes! Sorry for the excessive AN. Without further ado...**_

_**Disclaimer:**_

_**I don't own Naruto -sobs-**_

**Study In Contrasts**

He had pale skin, emphasized by the fact that he was wearing black, and dark blue hair which had been gelled into disorganized spikes.

I followed him to a spot on the dance floor a few feet away from my group of friends, and we started dancing.

Well, it's called dancing anyway. But 'we moved randomly in time to the beat', which would be a more accurate statement, doesn't have quite the same ring to it!

He was quite a lot taller than me and as a result I had to crane my head to look him in the eyes when we were close together.

"So, girly. What's your name?"

"Ino. And I don't take kindly to people patronising me." I was being serious, but I softened the comment with a teasing smile. That didn't mean I wouldn't kick him somewhere painful if he tried to call me 'girly' again.

"Ino," he tried the name out, "Nice. I'm Kisame." He grinned at me, and I was a tiny bit alarmed by how sharp his teeth looked. Or maybe it was just a trick of the light?

A particularly popular song came on and suddenly there seemed to be twice as many people dancing. Kisame and I were forced even closer together, our bodies almost touching.

He leaned down so that his mouth was near my ear, "I love this song!"

"What is it?"

"Pardon?"

I sighed, communication in a place like this was virtually impossible.

"**WHAT IS THE SONG CALLED?**" I yelled at him.

"Oh," he laughed, "Blood Sugar"

I nodded as if I had a clue what he was talking about, but I didn't have to know what the song was to appreciate that it was perfect for this party. Everybody was jumping up and down, it was as if all of the people on the floor were linked by the music. It was like magic.

I felt someone bump into me and turned around to see Kiba and Kin with their arms up, jumping like kangaroos on speed.

"Are those your friends?" Kisame's voice was even closer to my ear than before, his breath warm on my neck.

"Yup. Those, and the two girls by the bar there."

"The blond and the brunette?"

I just nodded, trying to focus on keeping up a steady rhythm of breathing while people pressed in from all sides.

"I love your hair"

I whipped my head back round to face Kisame in an effort to judge whether or not he was for real. His face looked caught between a grin and a leer.

I'd decided to leave my hair loose for the party, so it fell to just below the middle of my back. Kisame lightly ran one hand through the length of the pale yellow strands, and I pulled away from him.

"Hands off," I said sternly as I moved backwards, only to be interrupted by his hands on my back, pulling me closer.

"I mean it, let go!"

"Or what?" He muttered in my ear, tightening his grip.

I put all my strength into pushing away from him – it wasn't enough to break his hold, but it was enough for me to breathe – filled my lungs with air and yelled.

"**KIBA!"**

I couldn't turn around, so I had no way of knowing whether he was close enough to hear. If he had been more than a few feet away then my shout could have easily been drowned out by the combination of the music and the crowd chanting nonsensically.

But thankfully he wasn't more than a few feet away.

Within moments my best friend was at my side giving Kisame a look that could kill a medium sized cat at twenty paces.

"You may want to reconsider your position," Kiba said slowly, "Either that, or wait for me to remove your arms from both my friend and your body."

Kisame blinked once before withdrawing his arms and holding them up in traditional 'I surrender' style.

"Chill out, I wasn't hurting her or anything!"

Kiba looked incredulous, "I don't _care_ what you were doing. The point is, she didn't want you to. Now piss off."

Kisame rolled his eyes and muttered indistinctly to himself, but wasn't quite brave enough to not do as he was told.

I turned to Kiba and threw my arms around him.

"Thank you so much! That was freaking _awsome!_"

He laughed, "It was kinda fun. I had no idea I could be so scary!" He pulled back to take a look at my face, "Are you ok?"

"Course I am," I said decisively and Kiba smiled, ruffling my hair.

"Do you two fancy moving on to Kin's place?" Temari interrupted, seeming to appear from nowhere through the wall of people, "Zaku can't be arsed to drag himself down here and Kin says she fancies a bit of winding him up.

Kiba and I made eye contact – we both knew what Kin winding Zaku up would involve. They had an irritating on/off/on/off relationship that mostly relied on Kin deciding she was sick of being single and wanted someone on call for snogging, or Kin deciding that she was bored of being 'in a relationship' and wanted more freedom.

Either way, it was always up to Kin.

Sometimes she liked to take advantage of that by messing with him a little. A bit of making out in a dark corner, then moments later she'd be telling the rest of us about all the guys she'd had flirting with her, all the numbers she'd been given, etcetera.

Not much fun for Zaku, and not much fun for the rest of us either to be honest.

But Kin was the one running the show that was 'our gang', so if she said "jump" our answer was "how high". There was no other option.

Which is why Kiba and I nodded obediently and proceeded to follow Temari who was following Ten Ten who was following Kin out of the club and to the bus stop and, eventually, to Kin's house.

"Sooooo," Kin drawled, "What now dudes and... dudettes?"

Temari snorted and took another swig from the watermelon flavoured bacardi breezer she was holding.

"We could put some music on?"

Kin shook her head, then giggled. "When my head shakes my viz... vish... eyes go blurry!"

Ten Ten raised an eyebrow, "How much have you had to drink, Kin?"

I started to count the empty bottles lying around the room,

"One, two, three, four, two... wait, I already said that? Er... five, six... sixsixsix..." Ten Ten, Temari and Kiba were staring at me (Kin was too busy trying to eat Zaku's face to be interested) "It sounds like... _S-E-X!_" I sniggered.

I slipped on a magazine that had been left in the middle of the floor, and managed to hit my knee on the edge of the sofa that Kin and Zaku were lounging all over.

"Owwww" I groaned, cradling my leg.

Kiba shoved me lightly in the back, "Aw, did you hurt yourself?" I nodded pitifully.

"It's your own fault!" He laughed, "You've had, what, three bacardi breezers here. That's on top of the vodka and coke you had when we got to the club. And when did you last eat?"

"Lunshdye" I said decisively.

"Er, Ino?" Ten Ten pointed at my pocket, "Why are you vibrating?"

That set me off giggling again (natch) so Kiba took it upon himself to extricate my mobile from my pocket and answer it.

"Yes?" He listened for a moment before pulling a face, "Kiba. Yeah, that's right... yeah... well, she's here with me... I'm not sure that's a great idea-" He paused to point at the phone, and then at me, raising his eyebrows in a questioning movement.

I just stared at him, blank and wide eyed.

"See, she's _fine_, just a little tipsy. Well, quite a lot tipsy. I don't think you'd get a lot of sense out of her on the phone."

Temari came over and sat down heavily next to me.

"Is he talking to your mum?"

I shrugged, "Igessoh"

There was a pause as we both looked the room over, searching for something to talk about. Temari got to Kin and Dosu before I did.

"_**HEY! YOU TWO! GET A ROOM!**_" She bellowed, and I flinched dramatically.

"Owwwwies... Tematema, thatturtmyirsh,"

That's not to say that Kin hadn't earned it! Dosu was actually lying on top of her on the sofa while Kin ran her hands up and down his back. They looked a little like they were trying to eat each other... ew...

Kiba grabbed my arm suddenly, interrupting my train of thought, and I turned my head a little. He was standing up, and had his jacket on. Clearly ready to go.

"Ino, you're already forty minutes later than you said you'd be. Come on, stand up."

I pouted, "Don_wan_nuh"

Kin (who'd disentangled herself from a very flustered looking Dosu) narrowed her eyes at Kiba. Granted, the effect was slightly lessened by the fact that she was swaying back and forth and could barely speak any clearer than I could, but it was still a scary sight!

"Ino... wans to... shtay..." she slurred, her eyes not quite managing to focus.

Kiba just looked at her. "Maybe she does, maybe she doesn't. But I think it's time I got her back to her mum."

"Buh... buh... Ino dushnt _care _bouther muhm."

What an incisive argument.

"Again, it's irrelevant."

Temari looked suspicious. "You don't normally push Ino to get on with her mum. What's going on?"

Kiba scrunched up his nose and chose to ignore the question, shoving my arms through the sleeves of the cardigan I'd brought to the club.

Meanwhile, Ten Ten had gotten her stuff together as well.

Kin didn't look amused.

"What'sgoingon?" She asked, startling us all with the volume and relative clarity of the question.

"Thisis _shposed _to bea _party. _Fr_Ino_. Sorta."

"Yeah, I know, you threw the whole thing in honor of Ino's new school. Except that you didn't. Not really-" Kin looked offended, heading for angry, at this and Kiba carried on quickly "Not that it would matter if you did. I'm taking her home. Now."

He tugged insistently at my sleeve, forcing me to a standing position. Ten Ten assisted by steering me towards the front door as Kiba said goodbye on all of our behalf.

The cold air outside helped to sober me up a little while Ten Ten and I waited around for Kiba to finish.

I leaned against the low brick wall bordering the patch of grass in front of the block of flats, trying to figure out what the situation was likely to be when I got home.

Ten Ten sidled up beside me and put an arm tentatively around my shoulders.

"You okay Ino?" She asked gently.

"Uh... yeah," I mumbled.

"Do you want some water? I think I have half a bottle in my bag,"

I shook my head feebly and she chuckled, "Aw, aren't you pitiful? C'mere,"

Ten Ten pulled me into a full hug and I went with it, resting my head on her shoulder, one arm still resting on the wall and the other hanging limply by my side.

I jerked my head back in sudden realisation, "Tenny, we didn't talk about that guy..." I trailed off as my foggy mind tried to recall the pale, long-haired boys name.

"Neji?" Ten Ten supplied,

"Yeah. Him."

I looked up to check her reaction, and spotted Kiba coming out of the building.

"Kibaaaa!" I called, giggling and trying to move towards him. I ended up lurching dangerously toward the pavement. I probably would have landed flat on my face if Ten Ten didn't have such amazing reflexes.

She laughed, and I grimaced apologetically in response. Can you grimace apologetically? I don't know, but that's what I thought I was probably doing. Ten Ten shook her head – a 'what am I gonna do with her?' gesture if ever I saw one – and hoisted me up so that I was leaning on her while still in a basically upright position.

Kiba came and stood on my other side, ready to catch me if I started slipping around again, and we set off like that. Three in a row into the inky night.

/\/\/\/\

When we got to Ten Ten's house, Kiba persuaded her to go on in and let him take me the rest of the way home. It was fairly clear from his tone that it wasn't just a favor to her, even at far less than full brain capacity I could guess that he wanted to talk to me.

Presumably Ten Ten got the hint too – she barely needed any convincing. Or maybe she was just tired? Hard to say.

But sure enough, when we got to the corner of my road Kiba stopped. He looked at me expectantly. I stared blankly back.

"Your mum told me about the conversation you two had."

I felt my eyebrows pull together slightly. Confusion or irritation? Good question.

"Are you joining the 'make Ino hug and make friends with her mum?' club?" I asked, a subtle edge of warning in my voice. (That's what it sounded like in my head anyways. From Kiba's expression it was probably a bit more blurry than that!)

He hesitated before replying, "No... Not as such. Ino, I want you to figure things out with your mum if _you_ want to figure things out with your mum. From what she said, it sounded like earlier you did want to get along with her. That's why I brought you back. Was I really wrong?"

I thought back to earlier, tried to remember the chain of events that had lead to the moment of calmness I had shared with her earlier. The tea, the talking... the trust.

"Oh crap..." I groaned.

"What?" Kiba was suddenly on alert.

"I completely forgot about all that..." I mumbled, head hanging.

Kiba leaned down so that he could look me in the eye. "Does that mean you do want to have a more positive relationship with her?"

I shrugged.

"Ok, well I'll take it as a yes until informed otherwise. Now-" He took me by the shoulders and turned me around so that I had my back to him, "time to get you back home." And thus, I was frogmarched back to my door. He even knocked for me before giving me a brief hug and dashing off. I turned my gaze immediately back to the front door. I could hear mum walking down the stairs – I literally had moments to consider what my defense would be (or if I was going to even go for defensive) before she arrived.

Although it wasn't the first time I'd arrived home drunk, it was the first time that I'd turned up in this state, and at this _time_, after promising to return before midnight and behave myself.

Just as I was trying to get my mind back on track, figuring out strategies to deal with the oncoming fury/irritation/disappointment/resignation/whatever she was about to throw at me.

The door opened.

Very.

Very.

Slowly.

Mums face was revealed centimeter by agonizing centimeter, as she peered anxiously round the door. Once she identified that it was definitely me – and only me – the door-opening rate sped up to a more normal level.

Oh gawd. Disappointment. With a shadow of something else, just behind her eyes. My brain was feeling too fuzzy to identify it properly.

"Ino..."

I stumbled past her without saying a word, without even making eye contact, heading for the stairs. Reflex reaction. Even as one part of my mind dragged me sloppily up the staircase and towards the sanctuary of my room, another part was reaching backwards to mum.

_Mama, my head hurts and I feel sick and I want a hug. I want you to make it all better._

That voice had been very quiet for a very long time. It did have a tendency to surface when I got drunk, but today I wondered if I should listen to it. Remembering how we'd sat together earlier in the afternoon with barely a hint of conflict.

I turned around at the top of the stairs to judge her expression.

Her eyes were fixed on mine, her eyebrows lowered, her mouth tight.

There goes that idea! I turned around and practically fell into my room, kicking the door closed behind me.

/\/\/\/\

I pulled my shoes off and flopped onto my bed, staring at the ceiling. It was intensely frustrating in a way, to be so close to a kind of truce with mum only to mess it all up by getting drunk. The walk back had done a lot to sober me up, and the expression on mums face seemed to have finished up the job. But along with the irritation, I felt a sense of relief. I tried to push through the lingering fuzziness to figure out what that was about.

Presumably I had been arguing with mum for so long that it had become my comfort zone. I didn't know how to get along well with her anymore. It felt like the kind of thought that should make me sad, but I couldn't summon up enough understanding of the concept to feel anything much.

I groaned and rolled over onto my side. I hadn't drunk that much in a couple of months, and I'd forgotten how quickly the nausea set in. Lying there with my eyes tightly shut, I tried to brace myself for a trip to the bathroom. It would be better to throw up now, rather than fall asleep and end up waking up with it all over myself. Or even worse, choking on it and not waking up at all.

Just as I was preparing to stand up I heard a tentative knock at the door.

"What d'you want?" I mumbled.

"Can I come in?" mum's voice was quiet. She didn't sound angry - maybe she was saving that for when she got in? Difficult to tell through the fog. I decided to take the risk.

"Uh... sure."

She opened the door and came slowly across the room to where I was collapsed on the bed. She sat down gingerly on the edge, and laid a hand on my arm. She took a long time to speak.

"Did you have a good time?"

I chuckled weakly in response.

"Ino, here's the thing," She paused, "I love you. I only want to know where you are so that I can know that you're safe. I only want to know when you're getting back so that I know when to expect you, so that I know if you're late back that I need to find out why. I don't know if I'm making much sense here..." She sighed.

I was confused. This was so not the type of conversation I had been expecting! All those times I walked out without a word, and she was furious. Why wasn't she more angry that I'd made a promise and then broken it?

"Aren't you mad that I didn't get back when I said I would?" I asked. I was aware that I was possibly about to remind her how pissed off she was, but I was hoping that I looked pathetic enough to inspire anger-reducing pity.

I couldn't see her face, so I didn't know what her reaction was, but she did begin to rub my arm softly.

"I'm... a little mad, yes. But mostly I'm really happy. I didn't know where you were, unless you were still at the club you started at, I didn't know when you'd be back, because you were already more than half an hour late, but I did know who you were with. So I could find you. That's a lot better than it has been. And you came back."

"Thanks to Kiba" I pointed out.

"Yes. He's a nice boy. A good friend for you."

I knew she meant good by her definition, but I nodded anyway. He was a good friend by my definition too.

"How are you feeling?"

I considered the question.

"A little sick. My head feels... fuzzy. And a little achey."

"Do you want me to get you anything? A bucket? A glass of water?"

"Yes please," I sat up a little, "Mum?"

"Mm-hm?"

"I'm sorry... about tonight."

She laughed quietly, "Oh Ino, it's ok. I love you, and the fact that we've managed to get through this whole evening without an argument has made me the happiest I've been in a long time!" She got up and moved towards the door.

"Mum," She paused in the doorway, "I... me too."


	10. Chapter 10

_**Sorry, as usual, for the long delay - I was away on holiday, and since getting back I've been ill T_T I have a cold and a permanent headache and neck-ache, and I can't talk or eat without my throat feeling like sandpaper. PITY MEEEE! Or, don't pity me and forgive me for taking so long to upload instead ^.^ Whichever you decide to do, I really hope you enjoy this chapter. It's one I've been looking forward to... make of that what you will!**_

_**Disclaimer:**_

_**I don't own Naruto. Desafortunadamente. (Spanish for unfortunately - great word, right?!)**_

**Study In Contrasts  
**

The next morning was a little grim.

I was woken up by my alarm clock at seven in the morning. Seven! I'd only gotten to sleep at three o'clock the night before! But seven was the latest I could risk – I'd have to seriously rush in order to get ready for school in half an hour, and since I had to be in my first lesson by half eight I needed to leave by seven thirty at the latest.

I dragged myself out of bed and across the room to turn off the alarm – putting it on my dressing table several feet away from the bed is the only way to stop myself from just whacking the snooze button and going back to sleep – before shuffling out of my room and across the hall.

Showers are an amazing invention, don't you think?

Ten minutes and I was back in my room pulling on the skirt, the shirt, the jumper, the socks, the shoes. Today I was wearing some plain old black flats, I didn't have the energy to rebel with my footwear!

I ran downstairs and into the kitchen, fetching myself a bowl of coco pops in record time.

I was halfway through eating when mum came in and put the kettle on for coffee.

"Morning, mum."

She smiled at me and sat down across the table, "Good morning. How are you feeling?"

I shrugged, "Not great, but I have been worse. Luckily I've never really got hangovers."

"You get that from me," she said with a grin, "your hair looks lovely by the way."

My hand flicked up to check it instinctively. I'd put it up in a quick bun to avoid it getting wet in the shower, and I hadn't yet had time to undo it. But maybe it would be easier to just leave it up for the day?

I glanced at the clock above the kitchen sink and had to stifle a groan. 7:25. If I didn't know better, I'd think that the damn thing was mocking me.

I scooped up the last of my cereal and flung the empty bowl into the sink.

"Having time issues?"

Deciding against wasting time on answering that question, I sprinted back upstairs to slap some makeup on and grab my bag. I checked my hair briefly in the mirror, mum was right – it did look nice up like that.

On my way out of the door, I couldn't stop myself from checking the time again.

7:32. Take that, kitchen clock.

/\/\/\

Students were still milling around outside when I arrived, and I stood around for a minute trying to search the crowd for one of the people I knew while also looking like I was perfectly sure of myself. A difficult feat.

The first bell rang within moments, putting an end to all the fun I was having. Unfortunately, that meant that I had to find my way to my first lesson.

English literature. I wracked my brain in an attempt to remember where that classroom had been in relation to all the other classrooms Sakura had shown me yesterday.

I peered down the corridor I was standing in, checking both directions for some clue.

"Ino?"

I turned around to check out the origins of the familiar sounding voice, and sure enough...

"Hinata!" I grabbed her in a hug, "please please pretty please could you tell me how to get to English lit?"

The poor girl looked slightly taken aback, but she managed to completely avoid looking at me like I was a lunatic.

"Yes, of course I can" she smiled shyly at me, "That's my first lesson as well."

"Oh? Do you have the same teacher as me?"

"Orochimaru?"

I nodded grimly, "Is it just me or is he mega creepy? I mean, like, zombie-creepy. Maybe even vampire-creepy."

Hinata giggled and started heading off down the hallway, leaving me to follow on.

/\/\/\/\

"Here we have a clear example of alliteration, or more accurately...?"

Orochimaru tailed off and looked expectantly at the class, waiting for somebody to finish his sentence. So far I had him pegged as one of those teachers who likes the sound of their own voice too much to actually ask a question – that would imply that the students need to actually come up with an answer! Instead he'd occasionally test our knowledge with a kind of verbal 'fill in the blanks'.

"Sibilance?" inquired Hinata from the far corner of the room. Orochimaru ignored her.

"Come now class," He said with a disturbing hiss on the last word, "_Somebody _in here must know the particular type of alliteration we're looking at in this example. This is GCSE work, is it not?"

"Sir? Is it sibilance?" Hinata asked again. And again, Orochimaru pretended not to hear her.

Under most circumstances I like to keep my head down at school. Better not to get a reputation in class – that way the teachers take longer to notice when you don't show up. But, Hinata being as sweet and defenseless as she was, I couldn't resist stepping in.

I put my hand up.

Orochimaru noticed almost right away, leering at me as he nodded in what I _think_ was supposed to be an encouraging way.

"Ah, Miss Yamanaka. Have you identified this particular-"

"No." I interrupted, "I haven't really been listening to be honest. But Hinata seems to have figured it out."

His gaze turned ice cold. In that moment he reminded me of a snake even more than usual. But he recovered quickly, listening to and acknowledging Hinata's answer for the first time.

The rest of the lesson passed fairly smoothly, although I caught him staring at me more than once before the hour long class was over. Can anyone say 'creep'?

As we filed out of the room Hinata came up behind me.

"Thank you very much for helping me."

I grinned at her, "No problem Hinata. It was fun having a reason to piss him off!"

She shot me an admiring look as we headed upstairs and I put on my best bragging voice.

"Seriously, that's nothing compared to how I was at my old school."

Hinata shook her head, "I just... don't know how you're brave enough to... talk like that to teachers."

"It's all a matter of attitude," I said philosophically, "You just have to get yourself into the mindset of 'what's the worst they can do to me?', and as soon as you realize that the answer's 'not a lot'..." I shrugged, trying to laugh it off, but I couldn't avoid the slight pang I felt as Hinata looked away from me.

'She's shy,' I told myself, 'it's not that she doesn't like me.'

But I hadn't missed the hesitation that had crept back into her voice. And just after it had looked like things were going so well.

We came to the sixth form common room, still in silence, and I stopped at the door to let Hinata get in front. She paused for a moment before walking through and heading over to a group of beanbags near the middle of the room.

I followed with a certain amount of trepidation – I only recognized Lee and Naruto from yesterday, the other boy there had his back to me and I was pretty sure I hadn't seen him before.

As we approached the three guys Hinata cleared her throat to get their attention. Naruto sprung up with a face splitting grin, "Hey! Hinata! Ino! Great to see you guys!" he yelled.

I opened my mouth to tell Naruto to keep his voice down, but Lee started off on a monologue before I got the chance.

"Good morning my youthful friends! I see, Ino, that you also have a free period at this time. Allow me to move up to give the two of you ample space to lay bean bags – I would be honored if you would sit next to me. That way we can engage in youthful and mentally stimulating conversation until it is time to move on to our next lesson!"

I stood there, mildly shell shocked, until Hinata pulled up two beanbags into the space that Lee had just created. We exchanged a brief grin as we both flopped into the bags almost simultaneously, and I was surprised at how happy I was to get that moment of connection with the shy girl.

My phone picked that super convenient moment to start buzzing.

I fished it out of my pocket and checked the screen – 'one new message'.

'Hey Ino, how 'bout coming to the cinema after lunch? We can pick you up at two. Whaddya say?

-Kiba'

I'm not sure how long I looked at that text, eyes narrowed and a frown on my face, before the boy next to me spoke up.

"Bad news?" His words had a drawn out quality, as if he couldn't be bothered to give them any more shape than absolutely necessary for people to understand him.

I looked at him for the first time and noticed two things immediately.

1 – I had, in fact, seen him before. He was the skinny guy I'd seen from the office on my first day, walking with his fatter friend. Who, now I thought about it, was obviously Choji from yesterday.

2 – he was gorgeous.

His eyes were closed, his head tilted back so that it was leaning on the sofa behind us, and I stared at him openly for almost half a minute before he opened his eyes and peered at me in irritation.

"Well? What's got you so worried?"

It took me a moment to remember that he'd asked me about the text message.

"Oh. A friend wants to know if..." I hesitated, remembering what my tales of dramatic school rebellion had done to a conversation with Hinata who already liked me "if I'm free after school." I finished lamely.

His eyes slid shut again, face relaxing into impassive relaxation again. For a moment I thought I'd managed to kill the conversation – despite my blatant lie!

"Why were you so stressed about it?"

Okay, maybe not.

"Well, it's not a friend I get on with particularly well." I invented as quickly as I could, typing a reply to Kiba:

'Soz, not today, talk later =]

-Ino'

"By the way," I said while giving the guy a nudge with my foot, "I'm Ino. New as of, like, yesterday."

"I know."

There was a pause, and then I laughed.

"Right, and you are...?"

He sighed, "I'm Shikamaru. Happy?"

Very, very, _very_ happy as a matter of fact.

"Come on, talking won't kill you!" I teased, but he just muttered in response. "What was that?"

"Troublesome." He answered decisively.

"Was that what you said before or your response to me wanting to know what you said?"

He opened his eyes a tiny fraction to give me a mild glare.

"Both."

I watched as he closed his eyes again and relaxed completely into the beanbag.

Oh my. Talk about lust at first sight! I had a quick glance round at the people around, but thankfully Hinata, Lee and Naruto were engaged in a pretty animated discussion and weren't paying the slightest attention to me!

Well, Lee and Naruto were discussing. Hinata was staring mostly at her knees.

But the point was that nobody was looking in my direction. So I could go back to studying Shikamaru!

He wasn't the type of guy I'd normally gone for. My normal type being blond, athletic, tall, rugged etc. Shikamaru was tall, yes. But skinny, languid, with long dark hair pulled back into a spiky ponytail. He even had his ears pierced! A small silver hoop in each.

I had earrings like that at home.

The bell rang then and Hinata looked up for the first time in about ten minutes.

"I suppose that... Sa-"

"OH YEAH!" Naruto yelled, "Sakura and Sasuke and Choji will be coming from drama now!"

Shikamaru murmered another 'troublesome' as I stood up to whack Naruto over the head.

"Hey, Hinata was in the middle of talking! Don't you know better than to interrupt people?"

Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

"Apologize!"

He looked at Hinata, "I'm really sorry Hinata, honest, I didn't mean to..." he tailed off as Hinata turned slowly red before slumping in her seat.

"Hinata?" I crept up close to her and shook her lightly. She snapped back into a sitting position, eyes wide and face still decidedly tomato-like.

"I'm... I'm v-very sorry!" She stuttered abruptly, and I laughed at the mortified expression on her face.

"Chill, I was just getting Naruto to apologize for his rudeness," I sent a mock glare at the blond, "or did you catch that bit?"

Hinata nodded her head forcefully, then looked up.

"Sakura! And Sasuke!" She stood and waved in the direction of the door clearly grateful for the distraction, "We're over here!"

Sakura came right up to me and grinned, "Budge up Ino! I'm sure there's room for both of us on there."

I raised my eyebrows a little, I was finding it pretty difficult to understand the sudden and complete acceptance I'd found in this group and specifically with Sakura – given that we hadn't spoken in years, but moved over anyway.

There wasn't really enough space, and we both had to lean into each other a little to avoid falling off, but we settled ourselves into a comfortable position soon enough. Sasuke sat himself down on the floor in between Sakura and Hinata and before long they (meaning Sakura) were telling us all about the drama lesson they'd just had.

"What happened to Choji?" Shikamaru inquired. Sakura giggled and reached around me to poke him in the side.

"I didn't even notice you were here! Could you _be_ any stiller?"

"Is that a word?" He asked completely deadpan, getting another laugh out of Sakura.

"I don't know. It is now though! Anyway, Choji stuck around to help Kurenai put the props away. He should be up in a minute."

I sat there, listening to this exchange and searching my brain for something funny to say. Needless to say, I got nothing.

It was so weird – normally I can flirt with guys no problem! Actually it's a bit of a talent of mine. But sitting next to Shikamaru, him with his lankiness and permanent bored expression, I couldn't come up with a single witty or suggestive comment. Seriously irritating.

Another shrill bell interrupted my train of thought, causing me to jump.

"Jeeez!" I gasped, and everyone turned to look at me. I turned almost as red as Hinata, "I just wasn't expecting that. I thought a bell went off a minute ago."

"Fifteen minutes actually," Sakura explained as she extricated herself from the beanbag, "that's all we get for this break. Now there are two more lessons, then we get an hour for lunch. Then one more lesson, then the library hour – but that isn't compulsory, you can go home if you like. There's nothing else on after that."

I tilted my head to one side as I took in the information, then turned to Hinata.

"What've you got next?"

"Economics. What do you have Ino?"

I scrabbled in the bottom of my bag for the timetable I'd been given, fishing it out from the mess of makeup, pens, notepaper and keys.

"Looks like... double art."

Hinata nodded sagely, "Would you like me to give you directions to the art corridor?"

"No need."

I looked around in surprise – the answer hadn't come from me – and found that Shikamaru had roused himself from his near-horizontal position and was hauling the strap of a bag onto his shoulder.

"I have art too," he explained "so I can make sure she gets there."

On the outside, I twitched an eyebrow in an enigmatic manner. On the inside I turned into a whooping fan-girl.

_**OH YES! I LURVE IT WHEN THE UNIVERSE WORKS TO MY ADVANTAGE! THANK YOU GOD! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOT!!!!!! WHAHEY! YIPPEEE-**_

Ahem.

Moving on.

"Who's your teacher then?" I asked coolly.

"Kakashi. He'll be yours too, he's the only art teacher every day except Monday. Shizune teaches it then. And she covers for him when he's not in."

It was the longest sentence he'd ever directed at me, and I mentally examined it for something I could respond to.

"Shizune?"

Yes, it really was the best thing I could come up with. As it happened I probably would have been better off not saying anything – he looked at me like I was an idiot.

"Tsunade's assistant. You would've met her on your first day."

His voice didn't change its tone though. It stayed smooth and somehow effortless – not as in 'easy to pull off' but as in 'completely without effort'. So maybe that was the way he always looked at people?

We pretty much walked the rest of the way to the art room in silence.

/\/\/\/\

Half an hour into the art lesson I could see why they'd put two in a row.

I was sitting on the same table as Shikamaru but we hadn't said anything to each other since getting into the room. As soon as we'd gotten in he'd put his head down on the table and gone to sleep, so I'd pulled out some crumpled paper and a pencil and got to work sketching.

And then I'd stared out the window for a while.

And then I'd spent a few minutes watching the clock.

And then I'd done a bit of people watching.

And then I'd observed Shikamaru sleeping.

And then I'd gone back to sketching for a bit.

Because it seems that the headteacher has put two art lessons next to each other to allow our teacher to walk in after forty minutes.

When he eventually did show up, still in his mask and eye-bandage-thing, he blinked at the room full of students as if he hadn't expected to see us there.

"Oh. Er, sorry I was late," his one visible eye crinkled up at the corner in an apologetic eye-grin, "I was on my way to school this morning when I saw an old lady trying to cross the motorway. Naturally I couldn't just go on without helping her-"

He broke off as kids started to chuck paintbrushes and crumpled up balls of paper at him.

"What a load of rubbish." Shikamaru muttered – without raising his head, of course.

"Anyway," Kakashi said sternly (as sternly as he could while batting away pencils), "Today we're going to start on the first of the four A level pieces." He looked over at me, "Ino, if you feel like you need to see the introductory work we've been doing for the last week then I'm sure someone'll fill you in. Our first stimulus is 'Depth'." He looked at our baffled faces and his eye crinkled up at the corner again. "I'm looking forward to seeing what you all come up with! Ok, when you're ready." He waved a hand at a pile of A3 sketchbooks in a corner of the room and settled down at his desk, pulling out a book.

I shook my head irritably – Mr Hyuuga was a thousand times better at teaching than this joker. And I could have gotten a really good mark in art as well!

As I got up to grab a sketchbook and start brainstorming I suddenly thought of Hinata. Maybe I could get some tutoring sessions with my old art teacher? I'd have to ask her to ask him for me. Maybe if I had the lessons at the Hyuuga complex I'd run into Neji, and then I could put in a good word for Ten Ten.

Just as I was considering that someone barged into me from behind causing me to completely lose my train of thought.

"Watch where you're walking, yeah!" Came a threatening voice. I whirled round, fixing the boy with my best glare.

"First off, that was a way over the top reaction. Secondly, you barged into _me _you jerk!"

He narrowed his eyes and for a moment he looked tempted to shove me again, but he seemed to think better of it. He chuckled sarcastically, "Temper temper, hn. I think that was as much your fault as mine, yeah."

I rolled my eyes, "Sure. I totally should have seen you coming. Maybe using the eyes in the back of my head? And you were the one getting over stressed."

He shook his head, but this time his grin was a little more sincere.

"Could you pass me one of those sketchbooks, un?"

"Yeah, maybe, if you say the magic word."

He frowned in mock confusion, "I thought 'or else' was still two words? Or is it hyphenated now, un?"

I laughed, turning around to the diminishing pile of sketch pads. I grabbed one for myself, then turned again to stick my tongue out at the guy who now looked completely surprised.

"Get your own damn sketchbook."

I sauntered past, but stopped with a yelp as he grabbed my arm.

"You're the new girl, right un?" His voice was low, but curious rather than antagonistic.

"Yup," I replied brightly, "Ino Yamanaka, not at your service."

"I'm Deidara, yeah. Not a pleasure to meet you."

He let go of my arm, and I walked back to my seat without looking back. Some people had waaay to high an opinion of themselves.

Shikamaru was sitting up when I got back.

"What a drag," he groaned, glaring halfheartedly at the blank piece of paper in front of him.

"Don't you like the planning stage?"

"Yeah I do, but whatever I plan I'll have to actually _do _later," he grumbled.

I laughed, opening my own book to its first page. "Think up something easy then," I suggested. But clearly he'd lost interest in the conversation – he just shrugged in response and went back to his staring contest with the paper.

I sighed quietly to myself. In my old school, my reputation had preceded me with every guy I'd tried to flirt with, which gave me an advantage. But then, you'd think that the shiny 'new girl' status would give me a boost here for at least a week!

I looked at Shikamaru, and felt a slight skip in my heart rate. Weird. Either his total disinterest was pulling me toward him, or – the unthinkable – I was actually attracted to him. I scrutinized him, looking for something that would tell me which reason was the right one. Skinny, dark hair, dark eyes, lazy, constantly bored/tired. And not interested in me.

Not a particularly flattering list, and yet...

He looked up at me unexpectedly, and I blushed like Hinata and lowered my gaze to the table in front of me.

Oh gawd. I wasn't just after this guy for the hell of it. I actually had a crush on him.

The only question was, now what?

_**Hehehe, and now... for my thank you speech! (lawl)**_

_**I would like to thank... my amazing beta-reader, Scarlet Ember. My reviewers, regular and one-offs. In particular, Devil'sLittleBabyGirl and OF COURSE the amazing Aiko of the Akatsuki, a constant inspiration both in her reviews and her fantastic story My Pain Is Yours. CHECK IT OUT!  
**_


	11. Chapter 11

_**WOOT! I don't actually know if this is within a week of the last post - being on holiday messes up my sense of days - but I'm pretty sure it's not far off, right? Thank you all for bearing with me and this story, I'm working hard to get it back on track in terms of the time between each update. I think I may be getting somewhere! I couldn't do that without my beta reader ScarletEmber who is not only a fantastic proofreader but also super speedy! Also, I'd like to give my usual thanks to my regular reviewer(s), thanks in particular to Aiko of the Akatsuki who not only motivates me with her reviews but also with her amazing story. Okay, boring authors note over =P now get on and read the chapter!**_

_**Disclaimer:**_

_**I don't own Naruto. Sucks to be me. I do own this plot though!**_

**Study In Contrasts  
**

On my way out of school at the end of the day I managed to catch Sakura by the school gates.

"Hey, you remember where your old house was?" I asked.

She grinned mischievously at me, "What, the one just two streets away from yours?"

"Yeah, that one-"

"The one on Tenki Road?"

"Yes that's the-"

"The one with the broken doorbell and the duckpond in the back garden?"

I sighed irritably, "That's right Saku-"

"The one I still live in?"

"YES! Oh, hang on." I stopped and frowned at her.

"Didn't you know?" She giggled, "We moved away, but we moved back two years ago. My dads cousin was the one who bought it off us, so we basically swapped."

"Weird. How come I haven't seen you around then?"

Sakura blinked, suddenly seeming less lighthearted. "Well... I've seen you. A couple of times, anyway." She rushed on before I could say anything else, "But what was it you wanted to know?"

"No, wait, what do you mean you've seen me around?"

She looked uncomfortable, "Weeell, I've seen you with that Kin Tsuchi. And her friends. At the playground, for one thing. And sometimes just walking around late. But not often."

"And you didn't say anything to me because...?"

"I dunno," She was fidgeting now, and she seemed almost embarrassed. Ah. Maybe because of the first time I saw Kin. When Sakura and I were still best friends and walking back from our primary school together. I shook off the memory and decided to move on, before I forgot what I'd originally wanted to ask her.

"Fine, fine." I waved a hand dismissively in front of my face, "Well this should be even easier for you to answer if you're still living near me. Do you know what bus will take me between the school and my place?"

"Yeah! Of course!" She was smiling again now, "The number 200 bus goes from just down the road here to the corner of my road. I was just waiting for Sasuke actually, he'll be here in a minute and we can take the bus together!"

I looked around at the other students wandering past us, or waiting at the gates for their own friends. Over to my right Sakura started to scan the crowds for Sasuke's distinctive hair.

Within moments she'd seen him, waving enthusiastically to get his attention.

"Oh cool! He's here already! Looks like he's got Naruto with him too! HEY GUYS! WE'RE OVER HERE!"

I flinched slightly at the sheer volume, "Whoa, Sakura, that shout could almost put Naruto's bellow to shame!"

Ignoring me, she half skipped and half ran to the two guys, grinning all the way. I followed, a little more reluctantly.

Why reluctantly you ask? Well, the thing was that Sasuke didn't seem to like me all that much. As I got close, he shot me a brief look that I couldn't quite decode. Irritation? Boredom? Straight dislike? I couldn't tell, but I was pretty sure that it wasn't an 'Oh my gosh Ino you're so attractive let me just run away with you' look. Or anything like it.

Thankfully Naruto made up for it by practically jumping up and down when he saw me.

"INO! Are you taking the bus too? This is so cool, I didn't know you lived near Sakura!"

I raised an eyebrow coolly, "I can't say I'm that surprised. You forget, you only met me yesterday."

He laughed, "Good point – hey! You know what would be awesome?!"

Sakura turned away from Sasuke, rolling her eyes. "Let me guess," she said mock-thoughtfully, "ramen?"

"Exactly!" Naruto yelled, punching his fist into the air.

Sasuke shot the blond a mildly irritated glance – which got turned on _me_ when I had the nerve to laugh. I mean really, how dare I find something amusing in the situation?

"Lighten up, Sasuke." I muttered, just loud enough for him to hear me.

"Hm." His irritated look was on its way to becoming a full-fledged glare, but as the tension started to rise Sakura decided to bring us back to safer territory.

"Well, I don't mind going for ramen I guess – I mean, we ought to celebrate Ino's first full day here _somehow_ and I guess ramen is as good a way as any to do it, right? Right! Do you guys all have money?" She gabbled, grinning a little too cheerfully.

"I think I have my emergency ramen money with me..." Naruto said with his head buried in his bag. I wrinkled up my nose a little, and Sakura noticed.

"What's up? Don't you like ramen? We can do something else if you want." At least her voice was back to normal speed and pitch. I shook my head, "Ramen's fine. It's like noodles isn't it? No, I'm just..." I tailed off.

I wasn't about to announce to these rich kids that I couldn't really afford to eat out.

Not that I was poor exactly – mum had enough money to keep us in a decent house in a nice neighborhood. And obviously she could pull together funds for a heavily discounted private education. But after all the other expenses, I wasn't left with much in the way of an allowance. And since most of that went on clothes so that I wouldn't look like an idiot next to Kin and Temari, I definitely didn't have enough for expensive food!

"I don't have any money with me today." I said, praying they wouldn't suggest that I go home and get some.

Sakura looked a little surprised, "Hello, didn't I just say that this was a celebration? I'm paying for you. Duh."

I started to shake my head, mortified – had she figured me out? But Naruto interrupted, "Yeah, like a birthday or something!" He seemed to be warming to the idea, "We can all pitch in to pay for yours! Plus it's really cheap, so it's not like a big deal or anything! We should see if anyone else from the group can come!"

Sakura was nodding along, "That's actually a good idea!" Naruto looked a little offended at how surprised she sounded but she ignored him, "I'll text the others and get them to meet us there." She got her phone out immediately and turned around to compose the invitation.

"Right," I said, "Now that you guys have decided all of that, would somebody tell me where we're actually going?"

Naruto didn't hear me – he was too busy counting up the money in his little frog wallet – and since Mr. Unfriendly wasn't keen on speaking to me I opened my mouth to repeat the question. Until Sasuke spoke.

"Ichiraku's."

Well whaddya know! He _was _capable of talking to me after all!

"Right, we're getting somewhere." Why oh why was I so keen on antagonizing him? "And Ichi-whatsit's is where exactly?"

He narrowed his eyes at me, but answered the question anyway, "Ichi_raku's _is on the 200 bus route, where it crosses the 493 bus route. It's where Naruto and I need to change buses to get to our houses. That makes it convenient."

"Plus!" Interjected Naruto, "They serve the best ramen in the world! Plus! It's really cheap! Plus! It's convenient!"

"I already said that, idiot." Sasuke said blandly.

"WHAT?" Naruto screeched, "Don't call me an idiot, idiot!"

"Then don't _act_ like an idiot, moron."

"MORON? I'll show YOU who's the moron! C'mon, let's fight!"

"Don't be stupid. Do you want to get expelled?"

Sakura came up beside me, and we both stood and watched the pantomime unfolding in front of us.

It was difficult not to laugh – as Naruto got louder and more high pitched, jumping around like a frog in a pot of boiling water, and Sasuke remained stoic as ever with only the occasional flash of annoyance.

Suddenly Sakura yelped, "Guys! Bus!"

Naruto jumped to attention, sprinting out of the school gates, and Sakura immediately relaxed.

I frowned, "Shouldn't we hurry up?"

"Nah," Sakura waved a hand impassively, "Naruto will hold the bus driver up for as long as we need."

"Who's meeting us there?" Sasuke asked.

"Hinata and Lee are definite yeses, Shikamaru didn't reply but chances are he'll be there if Choji is."

I straightened a little at the mention of Shikamaru. "Choji's the chubby one, right?" I asked as casually as I could manage.

Sakura sniggered, "Yeah, but you can't say that to his face."

I laughed with her, "Oh, because I'm that rude! What kind of a person do you think I am?"

Her laugh faded, and I knew what she was thinking about. Or who, more accurately.

Kin Tsuchi.

"Hey Sakura," I said on an impulse, "Do you remember that time we ran into Kin on the way back from school?"

She froze and weirdly, so did Sasuke. Did he know about this too?

"Huh," she said, "When was that?"

"Must've been year six. Near the end." I deliberately didn't specify 'the end of the school year'. Not when it was the end of so many other things too.

"Yeah, I vaguely remember." She muttered. Lying.

"What happened," I asked quietly, "after I ran away?"

I peered across at Sakura as she tilted her head backwards, exhaling quickly.

"Nothing much." She said abruptly, "She laughed at me for being a private school girl," true. "she pushed me around a bit," also true. Sakura paused, "And then... she got bored and wandered off." Lie. Lie lie lie.

But I pretended not to recognize it.

We were mere feet away from the bus stop, and my jaw literally dropped when I saw that the bus was still there. Sakura grinned at my expression.

"Told you so."

We got to the door of the bus, and I saw Naruto with one foot on and one foot off, chatting merrily with the driver.

"'So,' he says to me, 'what are you planning on doing to pass the next test?' And I just shrug and say 'study, sir?' and he stands up really tall and says 'Right. I'm glad you've learned your lesson young man.' And then there's this pause, and I just say 'yeah, but if you'd taught me my lesson before the first test then I wouldn't have needed to study at all!'"

The bus driver roared with laughter, then noticed the three of us standing behind Naruto.

"Oh? Are these your friends then?"

"Yup! Thanks a lot ma'am."

The driver shook her head, wiping an eye surreptitiously. "No problem kiddo. Oh man... you need to go into comedy or something."

"Nah," Naruto grinned, "I don't think I'm suited to it. Anyways, have a great day!" he headed off to find a seat, and we bought tickets and followed him down the bus.

"I thought you didn't have money." Sasuke muttered, and I blushed instantly.

"I meant that I didn't have enough to buy food. I'm not an idiot – how was I going to get home without a bus fare?"

"Hm."

And what can you say to a comeback like that? I sat next to Naruto with an irritated sigh. I should have remembered this from primary school – never get on the wrong side of an Uchiha.

/\/\/\/\

Ichiraku's barely had enough seats for all of us – the place was tiny – and they were all in a row. Sakura pulled me over to a seat, and I called Hinata over to sit on my other side.

It looked like everyone had shown up, and yes that does include Shikamaru. The layout of the chairs made it difficult to see him unless I leaned backwards or forwards to see around all the other people. But the seating arrangement had an advantage as well – it was very hard to hear what anyone was saying except for the people on either side of you.

And I intended to make full use of that!

"Hinata, you know Shikamaru?"

She nodded with a slight smile, "Of course I do Ino. Why?"

I shifted in my chair, pretending to be more embarrassed than I actually was. That was a bit of a habit of mine – I felt it gave me an advantage if people underestimated my ability to deal with embarrassing situations, "Well... I was wondering if you knew if he... had a... y'know."

The blush creeping across my cheeks was completely genuine, but at least I knew that my averted eyes and hesitant voice were under my control. It was just the general face area that had a mind of its own.

"A girlfriend?" Hinata asked quietly, and I nodded. She looked thoughtful, "I don't _think_ he does. He's never said anything about one anyway. Do you like him?"

I nodded again. "What else can you tell me about him?"

She considered the question. "He's very intelligent, but also quite lazy. He likes board games..." She was floundering a bit at that point, "He doesn't talk about himself much. Actually, he doesn't talk much at all."

"Do you know what type of girl he likes?"

"Who are you talking about?"

I whirled around to face Sakura, trying to figure out how much she'd heard.

She was grinning like a Cheshire cat. I had to assume the worst.

"Er, we were, I was..." I looked back at Hinata for guidance, and she shrugged helplessly.

"Ino, I'm sure you can tell Sakura."

"Tell me what?"

I closed my eyes, "IhaveacrushonShikamaru." I cracked one eye open to gauge Sakura's reaction. Eyes wide, mouth open, eyebrows trying to join the hairline. Would that sound like a reaction indicating shock to you?

"I was just asking Hinata for advice."

Sakura looked a little put out, "Why didn't you tell me before?"

I rolled my eyes, "Maybe because I only found out myself at school today, and haven't had a good moment to say anything until now?" I held up a hand to stop her from interrupting again, "And as soon as we sat down you started talking to Sasuke, so don't try to say I could have told you then."

She smiled sheepishly, "Ok, ok, fair enough. Now." Her tone became business-like. "What are we going to do about it?"

"We?" I asked weakly.

"Yes. Definitely we. Who knows this guy better, you or Hinata and me?" I'm assuming that was a rhetorical question since she moved straight on, "And therefore what gives you a better chance of getting together with him, going it alone or relying on our expert advice?"

"Enough with the drama Sakura, you've made your point." I teased.

My phone buzzed, indicating another text.

"Hey, free to talk yet? Can't wait to hear why you couldn't make it to the cinema =P

-Kiba"

Sakura started rummaging around in her own bag, "That reminds me! Crap! I completely forgot to tell my mum I'd be late!" She reeled off a quick text and then held her phone out to me, "You may as well put your number in, while I remember!"

I pressed the numbers on auto pilot, and then wrote a text on my own phone.

"Just out with friends from Konoha High, back by six thirty.

-Ino"

Menu, send message, search address book... mum mobile, ok, ok. I'd never noticed before how long that went on for – why does it have to be such an ordeal sending a text message?

But it's not so difficult. And if it stops her from worrying, I guess I can take half a minute to let her know what I'm up to.

"Right." Sakura said as soon as my phone was back in my bag, "Let's get thinking. What are Shikamaru's A levels?"

"Psychology, art, English language and chemistry." Hinata recited, turning bright red as I looked at her in amazement. "Ah, I have, um, a talent for... remembering things" she stuttered.

"We're getting somewhere now. I have art with him, I know that already. Chemistry... I had that today but he wasn't in my class. Is there anything I can do about that?"

"I don't think so," Sakura replied, "But I know he sometimes goes to the art club after school on Fridays."

I was a little skeptical of this, "I thought he was supposed to be lazy."

"Oh he is," she affirmed, "he sleeps through the club. But if he does that then his dad can pick him up on his way back from work, so he doesn't have to bother walking home."

I laughed, "Figures. Right, so how do I get him to stay awake long enough to talk to me?"

Sakura raised an eyebrow, "That, my friend, is up to you."

/\/\/\/\

I let myself in when I got home and went straight through to the kitchen.

"Hi Ino, did you have a good day?" mum was sitting at the kitchen table, nose in a file as per usual.

"Uh, yeah not bad."

"Did you have fun with your friends?"

For a moment I internally objected to the term 'friends', but then I remembered that that's what I'd said in my text. I went over to the sink to get myself a glass of water.

Strange, I hadn't realized that I thought of them as _friends_. But then, thinking about the conversation I'd had with Sakura and Hinata over ramen – sharing secrets, gossiping, even giggling a little. What else could I call them?

"Ino?"

"Oh, yeah. I did thanks. We had ramen."

"I guess you're not hungry then?" I looked around to see if she was having a go at me, but she seemed more amused than anything else.

"I don't know. I might be going out later anyway – I think Kiba wants to see me."

"When doesn't he want to see you? It's ok, I don't have a problem if you want to meet up with him. Just let me know if you're going to want dinner."

I smiled quickly, wandering out of the kitchen to fetch my phone.

"Oh, and thank you for texting me!" mum called from the kitchen.

I smiled again, and meandered up to my room. Time to talk to Kiba.

"Ok, free to talk – do you want to call me or shall I call you?

-Ino"

I sent the text off, and then tipped my bag out onto the bed.

I had a couple of notebooks, some pens, a set of coloured pencils and the dreaded homework planner. Hidden inside was a terrible thing – a piece of work I was supposed to do for my next chemistry lesson. I scowled at the book, about to shove it to one side until a thought struck me.

Shikamaru = posh boy at private school. Shikamaru = intelligent and well behaved.

Ino = not not, not not not.

Therefore, for Shikamaru + Ino to = a relationship, I'd have to change some of my habits.

Who said I was bad at maths?

I set to work on the chemistry assignment, Googling as much as possible – I may have turned over a new leaf but that didn't mean I wanted to have to _think!_

I was starting to get kind of into it when I heard a tap at my bedroom window.

I leaned out to investigate, and saw a bemused looking Kiba staring back at me, Akamaru hovering round his feet as usual.

"Hey Ino, what's up with earlier?"

Oh gawd, I _knew_ this was going to be an issue.


	12. Chapter 12

**_That's right guys! I'm back! With another update! EARLY! I have an important reason for this. At stupid o'clock in the morning I'm off on holiday for two weeks. My mum says that there'll be internet access where we're going, BUT I'm uploading this chapter just in case I can't connect for some stupid reason and can't update for a fortnight. There probably won't be any issue at all, and you should have chapter 13 next week, but if there is a problem at least you have this one ahead of schedule. That's the logic anyways ^^. Okay! Thanks to my beta reader ScarletEmber, without whom my work would make a LOT less sense! Also a sincere thank you to all my reviewers - you all make me smile - and extra gratitude to my regular reviewers: Aiko of the Akatsuki, Miss Hydrangea (I think you'll like this chapter btw ^.-) and deathrosekitty. You all keep me writing *hands out virtual cookies*._**

**_Disclaimer:_**

**_I don't own Naruto or any of it's characters. But a girl can dream..._**

**Study In Contrasts  
**

I passed mum in the downstairs corridor as I headed out.

"I'm just gonna go meet Kiba, don't worry about dinner for me tonight."

She nodded distractedly at me, "Don't be back to late okay Ino?"

"Sure, no problem. Back by ten." I grabbed my coat and left the house, almost bumping into Kiba. He caught hold of me with a sarcastic smile.

"Whoa, Ino, calm down. Running around like that – you might crash into someone."

I barely smiled. Kiba started walking and I had to follow at a pretty brisk pace to keep up.

"Kiba, about earlier-"

"Yeah. I was wondering about that." He said slowly. "You haven't decided against going out with us, like, ever. And you've certainly always been up for skipping school. Then there's you being late back today."

"Oh come on," I snapped, "what is this, the Spanish inquisition? You're not my _dad_. So I can't blow off a social invitation without getting the nth degree?"

"nth degree?" he asked, genuinely puzzled.

"Kiba! Missing the point!"

"So are you!" He retorted, "I'm not having a go at you for not coming out!"

"I just think- wait, you're not?"

"Nope." He grinned at me, "But I sure made you think I was." I whacked him over the head. "Ouch! You need to get a grip on that temper Ini."

That did it. He always knew how to use that nickname to best effect! I leaned into him as we walked and he put an arm around my shoulder.

"C'mon. Tell me what's going on."

"Nothing." I mumbled unconvincingly into his shoulder.

"Alright then. I'll guess." I laughed, the sound muffled by his sleeve. "Let me see... you've been diagnosed with truantitis and if you skip any more school it will mutate into... into... uh... I know! Skipaholicism! And then you won't be able to go to school ever again and you'll fail all your exams and live on the streets. Am I right?"

"Not exactly"

"Fine. I'll try again. Hmmm... you have secret information that Kin may in fact be an evil overlord of the underworld disguised as a bog standard demon disguised as your common or garden variety bitch. And you're gathering your demon slaying weapons, so you no longer have time to watch films at cinemas like normal non-demon-slaying people."

I shook my head solemnly, "Kiba, I could tell you. But then I'd have to kill you."

"Couldn't you just give me a clue and then beat me up a little?"

"Nope!" I pushed him lightly, "got any other ingenious ideas?"

"You don't want to skip out on school any more? You've made some new friends at your new school and you want to turn over a new leaf? At risk of over using the word 'new'."

There was a long silence as I pressed my face even harder into his arm.

"Ino? Are you crying?"

"No." I snuffled. He gently removed me from his coat sleeve to check my eyes, "well only a little." I muttered, turning away.

"Aw, I'm sorry," he pulled me into a hug, "don't be sad."

"You guys must hate me."

"I don't hate you. Not at all. I dunno about the others, but I understand."

That really set me off. "It's not like I don't want to hang out with you guys any more." I bawled, and he shifted awkwardly. "What? What is it? What don't I know." I was trying to sound firm, but I couldn't quite manage it while completely unable to control my breathing. I think it came out sounding desperate. But whatever works...

"Kin was a little... miffed. About you not wanting to come out."

I was mystified, "Why is it such a big deal?"

"Because you're at a new school. She's not sure how it's going to affect you, and I guess she sees this as a betrayal." He shrugged.

I pulled away from him, wiping my eyes and trying to regulate my breaths a little.

"Okay, okay how can I fix this?" Kiba frowned at me. "What? Come _on_, I need ideas."

"I'm just wondering, do you really _want_ to fix this?"

I stared at him, dumfounded. "Kiba... 'This' is a big part of who I am now. Of course I need to sort it out. Besides, what sort of a position does it put you in if Kin kicks me out of the group? You aided and abetted me leaving that party the other night early. Ten Ten as well, I know she isn't Kin's biggest fan but still."

He looked uncomfortable, but he nodded anyway. "Well, I guess I could find us a party tomorrow night. That way you'll be staying out late on a Thursday – so she knows you're not worried about school the next day blah blah blah, but you're not actually missing any lessons."

"That's what I wanted to hear!" I held up my hand for a high five, and after only a second's hesitation he slapped it.

We kept walking in silence for a moment.

"So." Kiba said suddenly, "You really like these guys?"

I smiled, "I guess."

"You gonna tell me about them?"

"Well there's Sakura, you might remember her since the three of us played together sometimes in the summer holidays." Kiba nodded, "And Hinata. She's so sweet, really shy and quiet. And sometimes she gets really embarrassed over nothing. Sasuke-"

"As in the Uchiha?" Kiba interrupted, impressed.

"Oh yes! But then, I knew him in primary school too."

"You did?"

"Yup. He doesn't say much. Especially not to me. Then, hmm. Oh yeah! Naruto. He's annoying as hell, but really nice too. Super friendly. He reminds me a bit of Akamaru when he was a puppy." Akamaru yipped at that, happy to be involved in the conversation, "There are some others. Lee, Choji... Shikamaru."

"What's so great about Shikamaru?"

I gaped at him, "What? How did you-"

"Easy," he boasted, "you left him for last, _and _you paused before you said his name. You were wondering whether to leave him out in case you gave something away, and so you did! Give something away, that is."

"And aren't you pleased with yourself." I laughed, "Well, yes. Okay. I have a crush on him."

"Oh? Tell me all!" Kiba grinned, "I can't believe you didn't say anything sooner!"

I rolled my eyes, "Why does everyone have a problem with this? I only met him today! When exactly did I get a chance to tell you anything?"

He just chuckled, "Yeah, whatever. Now spill the beans."

So I spent a happy half hour talking about my new crush with my best friend, completely forgetting about my new Kin-worries.

I was of course soon to remember that forgetting Kin is a very bad idea.

/\/\/\/\

I got home in a great mood, only improved when ten minutes later I got a text from Kiba.

"Found a great party for tomorrow evening! I'll let the others know.

-Kiba"

I flopped onto my bed with an enormous grin. It was starting to feel like things were slotting into place, and it was a _good_ feeling.

The phone rang downstairs and I listened to mum rushing to pick it up.

Maybe I really could get along with her. All I had to do was forgive her. Could that be so hard? We'd never talked about her kicking dad out. For all I knew she could have had a really good reason.

Part of me railed at that thought. You know how when you're a kid, there's always a parent that you feel you get along with better? It's not that you love them more, maybe you don't even _like_ them more. But maybe one of them is less strict. Or maybe you know exactly how to get one of them to do what you want them to do. Or maybe one of them introduced you to your favourite hobby.

Whatever the reason, I'm sure most people will identify with me on this.

Well with me, it was my dad who I got along with better.

I was more like him than mum, more sociable for one thing. Mum would always rather have one best friend than a group of them.

Or it could have been that he was just better at making friends.

If my dad walked into a room, people immediately gravitated towards him. Everyone who met him wanted to be close to him, it was like magic. I remember seeing this effect from a young age and knowing that that was how I wanted people to look at me.

He was super talented too – he was the one who taught me to draw. He used to do portraits of me and mum, and sometimes Sakura too if she was there. He didn't just have to draw from real people though, he had a whole book full of sketches of the most beautiful women. People he'd just made up out of thin air!

That was another thing, he had an amazing imagination. He made up stories for me at night, epic sagas that lasted weeks at a time involving all sorts of complicated plots, characters, monsters and magic spells.

Of course he had his flaws. Alcohol was a big one. He came home drunk quite a lot, late after spending hours at the pub with his mates after work. But he worked hard! He was the managing director of a talent agency, so he had long hours.

Mum never gave him a break.

They were always arguing about how late he came home and how often he had to run in to fix emergencies over the weekends. Even then I thought she was being unfair – it was pretty clear that he worked a lot harder than her, therefore (by my eight year old logic) he was earning more money than her. So surely she should be thanking him?

"Oh don't even _start_ with all that."

I sat up, confused. The harsh voice had come from downstairs, could it have been mum? Who the hell was she talking to? Nobody made her that pissed off except me!

"I said no and I meant no.... look... no, don't even... you are being _completely _unreasonable!"

There was a period of more quiet talk before mum started shouting again.

"Oh really? Oh _really_?Well what makes you think that she wants to talk to _you_?"

And I knew then that she must have been talking to dad.

Which was weird, since he hadn't been in contact since leaving.

I crept a little way down the stairs, hoping to hear more of the conversation, but before I got even halfway down mum had slammed the phone down.

"Who was that?" I asked neutrally. Which of course meant that she knew something was up. If there's one thing I've never been, and never hope to be, it's neutral!

"That was..." she seemed to think about lying to me, before clearly deciding against it. "that was your dad."

Bingo! Ten out of ten! Get a gold star and go to the top of the class!

"Right. And what was that about someone not wanting to talk to him?"

She tilted her head slightly, "Ino honey, tell me what you want."

"I want to talk to him." Duh.

Mum looked bewildered, "Okay. Do you want me to call him back now?"

"No." I said shortly, "But next time he gets in touch, give me a chance to speak to him. And I'd really prefer it if you wouldn't say things like that without at least asking me first."

I turned around and went straight back upstairs, mind reeling.

What the hell was going on? Months and months after mum kicked him out I had waited for dad to call. Or write. Or maybe even show up on the doorstep and ask me to live with him! I would have gone in a heartbeat.

I wondered why he hadn't tried to contact me. Suddenly it made a little more sense.

What if this had been going on for ages? Years even? Maybe every time he tried to talk to me, mum told him I wasn't interested.

How dare she?

Had she ever thought to ask me whether or not I wanted anything to do with him? He was my dad for crying out loud!

Brushing tears of frustration from my eyes, I sat down on the bed.

How typical. Just when things are looking up.

I lay back on the bed and reached for my pillow, holding it to myself as if hugging somebody else.

Dad was always the one I got affection from. A goodnight kiss, a hug. He carried me if I was too tired to walk.

Dad was the one who fixed things. Plasters if I fell over, new light bulbs and batteries whenever I needed them, taping up books and paper and anything else that fell apart.

He was also the one who taught me how to be popular, how to draw people to me or, if that didn't work, worm my way into a group.

I curled up into a ball, crying silently into the pillow.

Wondering if it was just me who felt like the walls and ceiling were moving inwards, compressing the air and smothering me.

I couldn't be the only person in the world who sometimes, like that night, felt the weight of the past like a brick on my lungs, making it nigh on impossible to breathe.

I struggled to remember why I wasn't supposed to be going to sleep, but my brain was numbed by the dull ache of whatever it was I was feeling. After a couple of decade-long moments I decided it couldn't matter all that much, crawling under the duvet.

Lying there in the dark, head covered, I closed my eyes and begged myself to fall asleep.

I guess I must have done, eventually.

/\/\/\/\

On waking up the next morning I soon remembered why I'd not meant to fall asleep then and there.

I plucked at my uniform, which I'd naturally fallen asleep in, with a disgusted expression.

I stank.

Soon overrode by another problem!

"Why didn't my alarm go off?!" I gasped, flailing my arms around and looking in the general direction of my bedside table.

I grabbed the clock, turning it upside down to check the battery compartment. See (insert sheepish grin here) I'd lost the door for the battery thing about a year ago, so sometimes the batteries fell out.

But not this time! Two batteries, present and correct _sir!_

I frowned, checking the alarm setting.

Nope, I hadn't reset it or turned it off – it was still set to go at seven am. So what was the problem?

I checked the normal clock setting in desperation.

And there was my answer.

I was awake... at eleven minutes and forty one (forty two, forty three, forty four) seconds past six o'clock in the god forsaken morning.

Pillows are surprisingly good at stifling howls of agony, did you know that?

Ah well. Considering the state I was in after sleeping in my school uniform I figured I could probably make use of the extra time.

Even if it was a little more than necessary.

By ten past seven I was showered with my hair washed brushed and dried (and in a cute bun), dressed in clean uniform and eating breakfast with my schoolbag ready by my side.

My schoolbag containing – and you may want to sit down for this – my completed chemistry work. Oh yes indeedy.

So I was feeling a little smug as I ate my cereal, which is why when mum came in I didn't give her the cold shoulder. Truth be told, I completely forgot that that was the plan.

"Hey mum!" I even sounded chirpy. Chirpy! Sheesh...

"Oh, good morning Ino." She checked her watch, "You all ready to go?"

I nodded smugly, full of smugness and smug-itude.

"Walking again?"

I shook my head (inasmugmanner) smiling a little.

"No? Are you taking the bus?"

"Yep," I wanted to hold out a little longer, enjoy the feeling of having the secret, but I couldn't. I had to see her reaction. "I have two cool things to tell you."

She laughed, "Go on then, I can see you're dieing to share."

"Okay, okay, first off!" I held up one finger dramatically, "I have done my first piece of homework from Konoha High."

Oh, it was worth it. Her eyes went all wide and sparkly, her smile was of the enormously proud variety, she even did a little clap!

In case you think she was over reacting, you try not doing any schoolwork and ALSO never telling your mum anything and IN ADDITION not smiling at her. Ever. Keep it up for about five years. Then pull the same routine I pulled just then and see what happens.

"And the other thing," I held up my second finger, "At twenty to eight I'm meeting Sakura at the bus stop. We're gonna go in together."

Mum smiled fondly at me, "Oh Ino, I'm so proud of you. You're giving them a chance then?"

"I don't see why not," I shrugged, "I mean, Sakura and I used to get along really well. She seems happy to be friends again, and I do need someone to hang out with there!"

I tried to sound cool and couldn't-care-less, but I think the grin sort of gave me away.

I caught sight of mum's hands, clasped together in her lap, and I felt a twinge of guilt. A memory flashed into my head;

_Mum holding her arms out time after time,_

"_We need to talk about this"_

"_Ino, please talk to me"_

"_Give me a chance to explain, please darling"_

_And the last time she tried to hold me. Coming into my room at night and catching me sobbing into a T-shirt of dad's that he hadn't packed. It still smelled like him._

_She sat on the bed next to me and, after a moment where we both held our breath, put her arms around me._

I can't imagine how it would feel to a mother, to have her ten year old daughter slap her in response to a hug. To hear her daughter scream at her, as I did, "Never touch me again. Never."

To her credit, she hadn't tried again.

Apart from that moment in my room the other day. And if that wasn't a sign that our relationship was changing, I don't know what was!

I gave her a calculated look.

The whole hug thing had reminded me very effectively of why I hadn't meant to talk to her, but now that she was looking so happy... I wasn't sure I could bring myself to ruin it for her.

And I was starting to wonder if I even _wanted_ to be able to ruin it for her. It was just beginning to dawn on me that I had other options, and watching her try so hard to work with me instead of against me... I knew I had to give it a shot.

"Mum," I said bravely, "when I get back from school today I'd like to talk about dad."

She looked up in surprise and nodded quickly, "Of course we can. I'd be... well, not happy to exactly, but you know what I mean." She laughed a little at herself and I smiled with her.

As I grabbed my bag and headed to the front door I couldn't help but feel a return of the earlier (you guessed it!) smugness.

Don't look at me like that! It was the first time I'd ever been so mature and reasonable! I think I was entitled to feel pretty proud of myself.

/\/\/\/\

Sakura and I sat side by side on the bus comparing our chemistry work.

"Yours is better." I said grimly.

"Well," she searched for a way to make me wrong, "mine is... longer sure. But maybe the teacher will get bored! Shorter work is easier to mark!"

I slowly dragged my eyes up to hers, raised an eyebrow skeptically and then sank my gaze back to the two pieces of work. As that old saying goes, sometimes an eyebrow can speak a thousand words.

"Wait a second," I said, suddenly realizing something, "you're not in my chemistry class. Why do you have the same work?"

She looked embarrassed, "Well... it's not that we're not in your class. Well it is, but-"

"No," I cut her off, "I didn't miss the 'we'. Shikamaru's in your class too isn't he?"

"Yes. It's... oh you're going to think I'm a really awful person!" She wailed.

"I won't! I promise!" I put a hand anxiously on her arm to settle her, "Just explain, I'm baffled!"

"Okay, well you see... Shikamaru and I are in a small class of... a class for..."

"Geniuses." I said.

"Yes. I mean _no!_" she seemed horrified.

"Freudian slip!" I chuckled, "I'd heard about Shikamaru's marvelous mind, but who knew you were a brainbox too?!"

"Stop it!" She swatted at me with her homework, but she was giggling too.

"So how come you have the same work instead of freaky genius work?"

"We have the same work, plus a little extra. Normally just an extra hour a week of homework, but it does mount up."

"Okay, and is there any way of me getting into this class?"

We both froze, me because I hadn't known I was going to say that until it popped out and her, I dunno presumably because she thought the answer was 'no way'!

"Was that a Freudian slip of yours?" She ventured.

"No," I said distractedly, "A Freudian slip is where you say what you're actually thinking without meaning to. I did mean to say that, I just didn't know that I meant to say it."

"Oh."

There was an awkward silence.

"Look," I said eventually, "Forget I said it, I know I don't meet your genius standards!"

Sakura looked shocked, "What? Ino are you joking?" I looked blankly at her, "I was just surprised 'cos I didn't think... well I thought you were more into skipping school than taking advanced classes..." She blushed as if she thought she'd just insulted me. Hah!

"Sakura," I said gently, "I thought that too! Chill!"

She laughed, "If you really want to, I'm sure we can get you in. You'll have to work really hard though, to prove to your teacher that you can handle the work. Then we can talk to Tsunade about moving you up. I'm sure she wouldn't object to testing you."

"You mean there's a test?" Okay, this was taking on a whole new significance. Work? Prove myself? TEST???

"Yup, but you'll breeze it."

"What makes you so sure?"

Sakura tilted her head cheerfully, eyes slightly shut and mouth curved in her trademark kind grin.

"Easy. You're super smart!"

There were sooo many potential comebacks to that. 'You should try telling that to my teachers', 'my friends would wet themselves laughing if they'd heard you', 'I wish my mum had as much faith in me'.

But they only came to me later.

I grinned back at her, bringing up a hand to scratch my ear self consciously.

"Thanks."

I wasn't just thanking her for saying it, although it was nice of her. What I was really grateful to her for was that for a moment she made me believe it.


	13. Chapter 13

_**Another update on time! Maybe even a day ahead of schedule?? I'm not really sure - I find it difficult to keep track of the days when I'm on holiday. Anyway, I don't have a heck of a lot to say this chapter apart from my usual thanks ^^ Thank you ScarletEmber for your amazing beta reading, and thank you to my reviewers. I've had a load of new readers (or maybe readers who've only just reviewed, hard to tell) lately and I'd like to thank all of you; babywhat, everything but nothing, loop and deathrosekitty. Also thanks to the regulars ^^ Devil'sLittleBabyGirl, Miss Hydrangea and Aiko of the Akatsuki. Thank you all for your encouragement and feedback!**_

_**Disclaimer:**_

_**I don't own Naruto T_T I do own this plot though. It's MINEALLMINE! *ahem* ... sorry ^^;**_

**Study In Contrasts  
**

I sat near the back of my chemistry class, doodling absently on the back of my notebook.

"Does anyone know the chemical make up of blood?" A couple of students near the front of the class groaned. Anko was off again.

I'd only had two lessons with her but each time the class had started to lose interest she'd brought out a completely irrelevant question, normally on her favourite topic. Blood.

"It's a complicated one." She glanced around the room to see who was paying attention. I sat up a little straighter, remembering my conversation that morning with Sakura.

I wished I knew the answer to that question.

She held off speaking for a moment longer, then gave us an almost normal smile.

"Let's move on, shall we?"

And she went back to describing esters. Which, in case you were wondering, are basically smelly chemicals. Bored as I was, I opened up the book I'd been sketching on and started taking notes. I had a long way to go to be model student of the month.

/\/\/\/\

I texted Kiba on my way to lunch,

"I'm gonna need to know some details about this party y'know,

-Ino"

Namely when and where the thing was – I'd need to let mum know sometime that afternoon. Oh, and what to wear. Naturally.

As I got up the main staircase out of the Spanish corridor, I realized I wasn't sure how to get from there to the canteen.

I looked around for someone I knew.

"Come on," I muttered to myself, "There's gotta be _somebody_ who'll help me out..."

There! Coming down the stairs! A boy I knew. Well I knew his face anyway – pale, dark rings around aquamarine eyes, shock of red hair – I just couldn't for the life of me remember his name. But who cared? The point was that he'd probably remember me, whoever he was.

I ran up to him with a smile, "Hey! Could you tell me how to get to the canteen from here?" I laughed cutely, "I can't remember at all."

He looked at me impassively, "What are you doing here?"

What?

"I just had Spanish." I said, confused.

He didn't change his expression or his tone, but he did speak a little slower. "I meant in this school. You go to my sister's school."

Now that was ringing a bell. I knew his sister? I frowned, trying to remember who he was.

Then someone came down the stairs behind him.

"Hey Gaara, having a problem?" the older (face-painted) boy gave me a suspicious look.

"Aha!" I cried triumphantly, "I remember you now! You're Temari's little brother!"

Gaara and Kankuro were now both looking at me as though I was some kind of alien.

"Hey," Kankuro said, "I thought you went to school with Temari? What are you doing here?"

"I got moved, okay?" Why did it matter so much anyway? "Now will someone please show me the way to the canteen?"

"I'll do it." Gaara said, his voice bland as ever. "I'm eating with Naruto today."

"Cool, cool, whatever. Just stay out of trouble." Kankuro was already turning around and going back upstairs, presumably off to the sixth form common room, seemingly having lost interest now that his little brother had a new temporary bodyguard.

Gaara set off and I followed, neither of us saying a word. I took the opportunity to try and memorize the layout of the school.

I was looking over my shoulder to fix in my head where we'd come from when I bumped into something, almost falling over.

"Hey," a familiar voice growled, "watch where you're going you little- Ino?"

Looking up I saw the blond guy from yesterday peering down at me from behind his hair.

"Oh. It's you again. You gonna help me up?" I asked archly.

"No. And this time it _was _your fault, hn."

I shrugged as I got to my feet, "Maybe." I caught sight Gaara who was shoved up against the wall by someone who looked eerily similar. Same pale skin, same red hair. If I didn't already know his family I'd think they were brothers.

"What the hell?" I strode over and shoved the Gaara lookalike in the shoulder, "What do you think you're doing?" I squeaked as somebody pulled me away.

"Leave Sasori alone, yeah. This is nothing to do with you."

I struggled against his grip and he chuckled at the complete lack of progress I was making.

I couldn't hear what was being said, even though they were only on the other side of the corridor, but I did see Sasori's grip tighten on Gaara's shoulders and Gaara's eyes close slightly. In defeat? In defiance? Why couldn't I hear them?!

"So are you guys the school bullies?" I spat at Deidara.

He didn't reply.

Suddenly I was released, as was Gaara, and the two older boys melted into the crowd without another word.

I rushed over to Gaara. He didn't look any different, unless he was a tiny bit paler than before?

"Are you okay? What was that about?"

"I am fine. They have a problem with certain people. I am one of them."

"But why? How can you ju-"

"We have wasted enough time."

Gaara started walking again at a slightly faster pace, and we walked the rest of the way to the canteen without speaking.

/\/\/\/\

I bought my food without paying much attention, rushing to sit down so I could talk to Sakura and Hinata about what had happened to Gaara.

When I got to the table however, there was a slight distraction in the form of a certain long haired boy. Not Shikamaru this time, but Hinata's cousin.

"Neji?"

He looked at me with those pale eyes. For some reason they looked cute on Hinata, but on him? Verging on creepy. Why did Ten Ten like him again?

"Yes? And you are?"

"Ino Yamanaka," I held out a hand on impulse and he shook it politely, "your dad was my art teacher."

"Ah yes. I heard you were quite talented." his tone was perfectly well mannered, but completely disinterested. His eyes weren't really focused on me, but somewhere over my left shoulder.

If it had been anyone else I would have given up on the conversation, but I owed my old friend. Never let it be said that I'm disloyal!

"Are you interested in art?"

"Not particularly. I have... many other duties. They leave little time for hobbies."

Hinata, sitting to my right, looked slightly ashamed at this. I filed that away for further questioning on the subject of her cousin.

"Oh? Such as?" I tried to smile encouragingly, but he wasn't looking at me at all anymore.

"I'm sorry to be so rude, but I must go and discuss some additional work with my maths teacher."

He got up and left the table, striding purposefully over to a man with a piece of cloth covering his left eye.

"So Hinata," I turned to her with one eyebrow raised, "tell me more about your cousin Neji."

"There is n-ot much to tell." And if her voice hadn't wavered on the word 'not', I might have believed her.

"Come on Hinata, please? I'm your friend, you can trust me!"

"Oh! I know! It is only that... perhaps it is not my place to tell you."

I bit my lip, then leaned in closer. "Hinata, I have a very important reason for asking." Her eyes widened, "You see, a friend of mine, a really close friend of mine, has had a crush on Neji for a long time." Hinata bit her lip – I _knew _she was a romantic! "She thought he was unavailable because the only time she ever saw him was when he was with you, meeting Mr Hyuuga after school."

"I see," she breathed, "so she thought that Neji and I were...?"

"Exactly. Now she knows that that isn't the case, since I told her, and she wants to know, basically, whether she has a chance with him."

"Neji doesn't really like people," Hinata said doubtfully, "but I suppose there are ways of introducing them."

"Oh? Got any ideas?" She shook her head.

Then Sakura sat herself down in the empty seat to my left, making us both jump.

"You may not, but I do." She announced.

"How long have you been listening?" I asked, amused.

"Long enough," she grinned, "and I have the perfect two birds with one stone strategy. It will allow Hinata to introduce Neji to your other friend, and it will also give you the chance to put the moves on Shikamaru."

"Go on."

"A party." She said, looking pleased with herself.

I laughed, "Sakura, I don't think you guys would like the kind of parties I go to. How are we supposed to get everyone to bump into each other-" she was shaking her head impatiently.

"No, I meant _you_ throw a party. To get your old friends and your new friends to meet."

"I'm not sure that would be such a good idea."

"Well, you may have to leave some people off the guest list," she gave me a half smile, "but trust me – it's the best way."

"Neji's a people-hater." I pointed out, "Why would he go?"

"He would have to go if I were going." Hinata commented quietly.

"Say what now?!"

"Yup," Sakura filled me in, "Neji's like a designated big brother to Hinata. We told you that his father died when he was young, right?" I nodded, a little taken aback by how matter-of-fact she sounded, "Well the Hyuuga family is screwed up. Neji's dad was the younger of a set of twins, the other twin being Hinata's dad. They're really rich as well, but since Hinata's dad's older, he would inherit the vast majority of the money leaving Neji's dad poor. You following?"

I nodded slowly, and Hinata took over the narrative, "If Neji's father had lived, I would have gotten all the benefits of the money – such as private healthcare and education – whereas Neji would have had nothing. But when Neji's father died-"

"In suspicious circumstances," Sakura interrupted in a spooky voice.

"-my father took over his care. In exchange, he has been tasked with the job of taking care of me. He is supposed to accompany me to social events..." she trailed off miserably.

"Do you not like him?" I asked gently, but she shook her head.

"I care for him like a brother," she explained, "but... he hates me. It makes things awkward."

"People think Hinata's dad killed Neji's dad." Sakura contributed.

"Sakura!" I gasped, "You can't just say something like that!"

"Can if it's true" she pouted.

"Is it true?" I asked Hinata, and she looked away. "It IS?!?!"

"No!" She exclaimed, "Well, _I _don't think so."

"Neither do I," Sakura pointed out, "I just said that some people thought he did. I mean, it doesn't make much sense, does it? I can see why Neji's dad would kill Hinata's, in theory. But money couldn't have been a motive this way round."

We all sat there, pondering the grim real-life murder mystery. I looked at Hinata with a new respect. Her family was waaay more wacko than mine!

Naruto, who was sitting at the other end of the table, noticed our solemn silence.

And you know what somebody like Naruto always has to do with silence?

Break it.

"What's up guys?" He yelled, "Lighten up! The day's almost over! That means ramen time!"

"Just for you Naruto, I have homework that I want to get out of the way," Sakura replied.

"What about you then, Hinata?"

Hinata's eyes grew wide as frisbees, and she promptly passed out.

"Weird. Ino?"

I shook my head too, smiling apologetically. "I have a party to get ready for. My other friends feel like I'm neglecting them a bit."

"Huh? But surely you've only not seen them for a couple of days?"

I rolled my eyes, "Tell me about it."

"Huh?" He repeated as I leaned down to revive Hinata.

She came round pretty quickly, blushing yet again.

"Y'know something? We're really going to have to work on this." The bell rang and we both looked up at the clock.

"How did the time go so fast?" Hinata gasped, struggling to her feet.

"I dunno, but I can't remember how to get to art from here." I said pathetically.

Hinata looked torn, obviously wanting to show me the way to art but desperate not to be late to her next lesson. Just then I caught sight of a familiar spiky brown ponytail making its way to the exit.

"Don't worry about it," I shot her a smirk, "I think I just found a guide. Have fun!"

/\/\/\/\

I practically hung off Shikamaru's arm on the way to the art room – partly so he wouldn't forget that I was there and partly because the corridors were so crowded I was genuinely worried that I would get lost!

"Are we going to be late?"

Shikamaru shrugged one shoulder noncommittally, "Yes. But Kakashi will be _more_ late."

"Is that a habit of his then?"

"Uh-huh."

"Does that get on your nerves?"

"Nah."

"How come?"

He gave a long-suffering sigh, "I get to sleep."

"If I organized a party at my place, would you come?"

This time he looked at me properly, an expression of mild surprise in place of his normal vague look.

"That seems an odd switch in topic." I didn't respond. "Why? Would you invite me?"

I smiled shyly at him, "Yeah, of course."

He sighed, muttered a 'troublesome' and then nodded. "Yes, I suppose I'd go to your party. Are you having one?"

"Yup! Eventually. I don't know when yet." I switched to a teasing tone, "And your name will be first on the guest list, purely due to your incredibly enthusiastic response just now."

"Ha ha." He deadpanned, slipping his arm free of my grip to enter the classroom.

"There we go." I muttered to myself, "Looks like progress to me."

/\/\/\/\

The art lesson progressed much the same as the one before – though thankfully this one didn't involve a run in with the second most up-his-own-ass guy in school, the first most being Sasuke Uchiha – with Kakashi spending the whole lesson with his nose in the same book he was reading the day before.

I tried to rouse Shikamaru from his daydreaming to ask if he knew what had the teacher so engrossed, but he shook his head (what does that mean?!) and went back to staring out the window.

As soon as the lesson was over I ran out to the front gates, then stopped to wait for Sakura and Hinata. Having said my goodbyes to them, I sprinted down to the bus stop just in time to miss the first bus.

Cursing time in general I sat myself down and ferreted out my mobile to check for a reply from Kiba.

"Meet at the Cube club at 9, tell your mum we'll have you back by 1. It's fancy dress night. Am I good or what?

-Kiba"

I also had a couple of other messages,

"I'm going as an angel to Temari's demon =) how are you dressing up? And tonight you WILL TELL ME about smexy Hyuuga boy!"

From Ten Ten of course, and,

"Im meetin u ur house 2 gt redy. B ther soon biatch xxx"

From Kin. Oh great, so helpful. I checked the time on the text to discover that she'd sent it almost fifteen minutes ago. Meaning that she was probably waiting there already. Crap crap crap.

And then Sakura came up and sat next to me under the bus shelter.

"Hey! Sasuke's got some extra maths thing going on this afternoon so I thought I'd try to catch up with you," she spotted the pained look on my face, "is that okay?"

I nodded, "Yeah, I'm just in trouble with one of my friends."

"Which one?"

"Doesn't matter. So what's with Hinata's fainting?" Well if that wasn't a blatant subject change then I'm not blond. But Sakura seemed happy enough to go along with it.

"Oh, it's not a medical thing or anything. It's just 'cos she gets so embarrassed." she laughed.

"What do you mean?"

Sakura looked at me like I was missing something obvious, "Don't tell me you haven't spotted the pattern? She always faints when...?" I shrugged, "Oh come on! She's always staring at him, she blushes when he's near her... you haven't noticed?"

I shook my head, "No but if you don't tell me soon I swear to god-"

"The girl's in love with Naruto!"

I blinked stupidly at her.

"You really didn't know? She only makes it _completely _obvious. I thought the only person who hadn't figured it out was the boy himself."

"I just... I can't... I didn't... but _why _Sakura? Why does she like him?"

"They say opposites attract!" She said with a grin, "I mean, just look at you and Shikamaru!"

"Shut up," I laughed, "Unless he's said something about me of course. In which case keep talking!"

"He only said that you'd invited him to a hypothetical party and that he'd hypothetically said yes."

"He said that to you?"

"No, he said it to Sasuke. But I was next to Sasuke, so we haven't been playing Chinese whispers with it."

"What is it with you and Sasuke by the way?"

Our voices had been getting lower and more conspiratorial the longer the conversation progressed, so we both jumped out of our skins when a voice from above us said, at normal volume, "We're going out. Since it's your business."

"Sasuke!" Sakura squealed, jumping up to hug him. He endured it in silence, watching my reaction.

"The maths thing finished before it started – turns out Kabuto had to rush home."

I was shocked, to say the least.

"_Hey everyone!" Sakura had shouted, her face lit up, her eyes shining. Something had clearly put her in a good mood._

_She ran towards me and my little group of friends, beaming._

"_I've got something to tell you! It's a secret, you'll never guess who I like! Not in a million years!"_

"_How about you just tell us?" One boy asked._

"_Yeah," added one of the girls, "Just please don't say it's Sasuke."_

"_Huh?" Her face fell "Wh- how did you know?"_

_Another girl laughed pityingly, "Take a number! Sasuke's like, only the most popular guy ever, that's all."_

"_He is? Oh... I guess that means I've got a lot of competition!"_

_The girl next to me commented that Sakura had really come out of her shell. All I wanted was for her to get back in it, and leave Sasuke to me._

That was near the beginning of year six. Half a year, she found out that I liked him too. From then on, we joked around saying that we were rivals for his love. Considering we both spent a lot of time hanging out with him when we were younger I didn't think that either of us really thought we'd get together with him.

Hoped, maybe. But definitely not considered it a possibility.

"When did that happen then?" I asked feebly.

"Towards the end of year nine, after the SATs."

How could I begrudge her this? She looked so happy holding onto his arm like that. She looked like she belonged there.

Sakura was gazing up at Sasuke, and I looked to his face to see what he was making of the situation.

He was looking directly at me, distaste showing in the set of his mouth and the slant of his eyebrows. I looked away.

We used to be friends! A long time ago true, but he hadn't seen me since then. Why did he dislike me so much?

And why did seeing them together bother me?

"Bus." Sasuke said shortly, pulling away from Sakura to get his money out.

I internally gave myself a stern talking to. It wasn't like I still liked the guy! I had no right to be anything but happy that two of my childhood friends had gotten together.

I accepted all that, but still a part of me was incredibly uncomfortable with the idea.

/\/\/\/\

Sakura and I walked down the road from the bus stop and turned down the road to my house. We stopped at the turning for Sakura's road, and she held out her arms for a hug.

I only hesitated for half a second before stiffly moving forwards and hugging her back, but I think she noticed.

"Are you mad about me and Sasuke?" She whispered into my ear.

I pulled away, noticing her anxious expression. I was still amazed that having only been reunited a couple of days before, she already cared so much about our friendship. Was this yet another weird private school thing? Or just one of those features exclusive to Sakura and her slightly geeky friends?

"Of course I'm not." I said firmly, shaking my head for added emphasis. "I'm happy for you guys."

"Are you sure? You seemed a bit weirded out at the bus stop, I was wondering..."

"If I was jealous?"

She shrugged and bit her bottom lip.

"Well, I guess I am a little." Sakura looked alarmed, "I would love a boyfriend who was so talkative and bubbly." She giggled, encouraging me to continue, "Plus he luuuurves to snuggle, right? Oh! If only I had a boyfriend who giggled like yours does!"

"Okay! Enough!" We were both laughing now.

"Oh gawd," I moaned, "I will be forever plagued by the image of Sasuke giggling in bunny slippers!"

I grabbed at the wall for some support as Sakura sunk to the floor, tears in her eyes.

"That... doesn't... make any... sense!" She fought out.

"Having fun girls?"

The laughter died abruptly as we looked up to see Kin in all her fierce glory, staring coldly down at us.

Well _that _kinda put a damper on the situation.


	14. Chapter 14

_**It's here, and it's early! By a few days if I'm not mistaken. I'm just too good to you guys =P but we're heading for some interesting stuff so the chapters are coming relatively easy to me. And I don't like holding back chapters from you guys! So here you go, chapter 14. My usual thanks to all my reviewers, and special mentions to the regulars: **_**_everythingbutnothing, Devil'sLittleBabyGirl and Aiko of the Akatsuki =]. Oh! And of course I have to thank you especially this chapter because I've officially made it past 50 reviews! Halfway to 100. I wonder if there'll be enough chapters to get that many reviews? Don't worry, I don't intend to drag it out intentionally. But anyway, THANK YOU everyone who's reviewed and got me this far! Hope you all enjoy this chapter!_**

**_Disclaimer:_**

**_I don't own Naruto, yadda yadda yadda._**

**Study In Contrasts  
**

Kin clearly had some serious issues. I'm not disputing that. But there I was, clutching a wall for support while in the throes of hysterical laughter next to someone – suffering from the same condition may I add – who could only be described as a posh nerd.

While the rational part of me was going 'It's not like I've done anything wrong!', there was a large part of me that wanted to throw myself on Kin's mercy and cry 'It's not what it looks like!'.

I looked over at Sakura to see how she was reacting.

Eyes wide with fright, breathing speeding up, slight shaking in the shoulders, posture closing in on itself. It wasn't looking good.

My gaze flitted from Kin to Sakura, trying to weigh up the situation. It was shaping up for a face-off and I knew I was about to have to pick sides.

"Well hi there Sakura," Kin said in a sickly sweet voice.

"_How goes it in private school?" she continued, sneering at the two of us. I stood up a little straighter – I was the brave one out of the two of us, it was my job to protect Sakura from bullies like Kin. She wasn't any older than us anyway._

_But she was from the scary school down the road, where (supposedly) all the kids carried knives and the teachers went in wearing bullet-proof vests. And she was taller than us._

A shuddering breath from Sakura dragged me back to the present, and I struggled to remind myself that I wasn't ten years old this time.

The look in Kin's eyes told me that she wanted to hurt somebody. I wasn't going to be able to sit on the fence for this – I either had to join Kin or lose her friendship, and by the same token the friendship of everyone else in our gang. Except Kiba, natch.

Kin put one foot forward suddenly and Sakura flinched back with a quiet cry. This was getting worse and worse. At least if Sakura had been prepared to stand up for herself I could have persuaded Kin that it would be too much trouble to do anything to her. As it was she was an easy target.

_Kin laughed at Sakura, hiding behind me, and me as well, standing in front with clenched fists and shaking arms._

"_Leave us alone." I said, voice uneven and unbearably high pitched._

_The dark haired girl seemed distinctly unimpressed. "Or what?"_

"_Or... or I'll fight you!"_

_She sniggered, shaking her head in amusement._

"_Ino, be careful" Sakura begged from behind me._

"_Y'know what kid," Kin drawled, "you amuse me. If you run home I'll leave you be for today."_

_My leg twitched, completely without any instruction from me. My fight or flight mechanism was screaming at me to run, before I got hurt. I ignored it._

"_You run home." I ground out through clenched teeth._

_Kin moved forward and I held my ground, only to be thrown to the floor by a stinging slap delivered to my left cheek. Before I had the chance to recover, she dragged me up by the collar of my shirt._

_I didn't make a sound as she lowered her face to mine before throwing me to one side._

_I stumbled. Fell to the ground again. Doubled up in pain a moment later as Kin kicked me in the stomach._

"_Having fun yet, private school bitch?" Her voice was cool, conversational, "Maybe next time you should listen to my advice."_

_I pushed myself slowly, painstakingly to a standing position. Wobbled there for a moment, looking into the bright green eyes of my terrified friend._

_Then I turned and ran, sprinting with all the energy I had left towards home and safety._

That time I had been unprepared for the viciousness that Kin had in her. I suppose a part of me hadn't believed that someone our age could be that much crueler. Now I knew better, and if anything it made the situation even harder to judge.

I thought Sakura had changed! Become bolder! Why did she choose now to be exactly as I remembered her? Talk about inconvenient.

I stood up quickly, drawing myself up to my full height. Still two inches shorter than Kin.

"Pathetic isn't she." Kin commented casually. Giving me a chance to get in on the act.

The second it took for me to form an answer stretched into hours in my mind. The rational side of me that had surfaced earlier froze, trapped in an agony of indecision. The part that took over was pure survival tactics. It surveyed the surroundings, identified the strongest element and allied itself.

"Yeah," I said dismissively, hating the way the word felt in my mouth, "good for a laugh though."

"I noticed." Kin moved toward Sakura, swooping down to grab her hair. "Nice. Pink. Compliments the eyes." She tugged violently, pulling Sakura to her feet. "And doesn't this bring back memories?" It did for me as well, but Kin didn't know that. Had no idea how much I'd seen last time.

"Look at you in your posh uniform, stuck up little slut. Bet you've had all the boys at your school – and a good few teachers too, right Ino?" I nodded mechanically, on autopilot. "You think you're special 'cos your mummy and daddy pay for you to go to school. You're nothing without your money." Kin said with disgust. She turned to me – it was my turn to contribute.

"Snobby..." I turned my face away, unable to look at Sakura while I spoke. "Snobby bitch." I said, hoping I didn't sound as tired and miserable as I felt.

I heard a slap and a choked sob, and then Kin was next to me and shaking strands of pink hair free from her hands.

"Well that was fun." She said dryly, "Now we need to get ready for that party. You took forever to get here."

/\/\/\/\

Mum looked confused when Kin followed me into the house, and I went straight up the stairs without offering an explanation. Better not to put anyone else on the girls radar if I could help it.

Once we were in my room, the door shut behind us, I turned to Kin.

"I really wish you hadn't done that."

"Oh?" she didn't sound particularly bothered – she wasn't even looking at me! She glanced over my room, assessing its 'coolness' probably.

"_Look _at me dammit. You didn't help anything there."

"If you're so fond of the bitch why didn't you stand up for her?" Kin had a point.

"I didn't say I liked her." I snorted as if in disbelief, "But the point is that she's in charge of the group I've been tagging along with, now how do you think it's gonna be for me at that place? Do you want me to spend the day on my own?"

Kin put on a baby voice "Aw, Ino, are you gonna be lon-e-ly?" She looked up, saw that I was genuinely pissed off and softened her tone a little. "If it sucks there you can just hang out with us. If you skipped all day your mum would probably have to move you back to our school."

"If I didn't go to school at all I'd get arrested."

She shrugged, "Whatever. Let's move on. What are you wearing tonight?"

I glanced wistfully at the door one last time before focusing on the task of choosing a costume. Looked like I'd have to wait until another night before getting my answers about dad.

/\/\/\/\

Kin and I ended up a little early, waiting in line for the club to open.

She'd dressed as a gypsy with a floor length layered skirt in deep pinks and reds, a white midriff top patterned with intricate purple and red embroidery around the hems, a purple and red bandanna tied like a headband and two thick gold bangles on her right wrist.

She had brought all that with her, obviously.

I'd decided to go as a mouse.

I had to make the ears in a rush, cutting up brown cardboard and pink felt and sticking the shapes to an old plastic headband. I used eyeliner to draw whiskers onto my face and a pink felt pen to give me a little mouse nose. I had to borrow a brown miniskirt from mums old clothes cupboard – good thing she never seemed to have time to take any of it to the charity shop – and wore a brown camisole top. I wore long white socks with baby-pink pumps (only a two inch heel today!).

For a final touch I plaited three pieces of pink ribbon each as long as my arm and pinned it to the back of my skirt.

Kin and I stood an uncomfortable three feet apart, neither of us talking. I amused myself by counting the number of people dressed up as vampires.

Two, three, five, seven, twelve – why would you go to a party in a group of people all wearing exactly the same thing? Where's the originality?!

I looked around, annoyed that the others still hadn't shown up. Admittedly we'd agreed to meet at nine and it was still only ten to, but still. Some people can be _so _inconsiderate.

Kin looked on with a bored expression as I fidgeted in my place, tweaking my ears and swishing my tail.

The minutes passed so slowly that I thought I'd turn 20 before we got into the damn club, but a few minutes past nine I saw a halo and a pair of devil horns bobbing along the line.

"Hey guys!" I hugged Ten Ten and Temari, then stood back to admire their costumes.

Ten Ten was in a knee length white dress with silvery tights and white heels. She had a halo attached to a headband with some wire and sparkly white wings.

Temari was in a black long sleeved top and a blood red skirt that came to just above mid-thigh. Both so tight that I wondered if she was cutting off the blood supply in her hands and feet. She had red patent leather heels on and flashing devil horns.

Ten Ten pulled me to one side almost immediately.

"Okay sister I've let you get away without filling me in for long enough. Talk to me."

"I can give you information." I said slowly, "I can introduce you to a member of his family – the girl who he was raised as a brother to." she looked as if she might faint with excitement, "And what's more, I have a plan..." I paused to inspect my finger nails and Ten Ten grabbed my shoulders, shaking me.

"Don't mess with me!" She pleaded, letting me go.

"Okay, okay. As I was saying, I have a plan... to introduce you to the Hyuuga himself."

"Al_right!_" She gave me a high-five, "Nice going Ino!"

"Aw, it was nothing. Hinata was more than happy to help out when I told her it was all in the cause of _lurve..._" My voice trailed off as I suddenly wondered if Hinata would still be willing to help me when she found out what I'd done to Sakura earlier.

Ten Ten was in a news-about-Neji induced state of happiness, too preoccupied with all the new possibilities to wonder what was up with me as I turned slowly and walked back over to Temari and Kin.

When I got there they were chatting with a tree.

"Um, hi?" I said tentatively, touching a branch.

"Ino!" The tree whirled around and pulled me into a hug, "Whaddya think of the costume?"

"Kiba!" I hugged him back, then waved him away a few steps so I could inspect his outfit properly.

Dark brown leather shoes, brown corduroy trousers and a brown long sleeved top. But that wasn't the impressive part – his head was surrounded by an uneven sphere of leafy branches.

I brushed one wonderingly, "How...?"

"It wasn't easy. I skipped the whole afternoon to put it together." He pulled the treetop off carefully, "You know those things that bikers sometimes wear under their helmets? They're sort of like head gloves, they don't cover your face though." I nodded dutifully, "Well I got two of those. Then I went out into the garden and cut off a load of thin branches. I covered one of the head glove thingies with about half an inch of glue, then I put the other one over the top and stuck the branches through. They don't come all the way to the other side, see?"

He offered the elaborate construction out to me, and I felt inside.

"Aren't you gonna bake in there once you start dancing?" I asked, amused at the effort he'd put into it.

"Probably." He shrugged, "I'll just take it off if I get too hot. Once I'd had the idea I couldn't not do it!"

"Hey, guys?" Ten Ten seemed to have come out of her daze long enough to notice something. She waved in the general direction of the door. The _open _door.

Temari and Kin whooped and Kiba turned to me with a grin, but I was feeling guilty again.

Ten Ten had reminded me of Neji who had reminded me of Hinata who had reminded me of Sakura who had reminded me of what a bitch I was earlier. I turned to Kiba as the line started to surge towards the entrance to the club, "When we get in there I have something I need to talk to you about."

/\/\/\/\

The bouncer had been impressed with all our costumes, but none more than Kiba's. He even made us wait around while he took a few pictures! Once he did usher us through the club was starting to fill up, the dance floor peppered with a few brave people swaying or bobbing to the beat pounding out of the speakers.

As soon as a marginally more slow song started playing I dragged Kiba out to the floor.

"I've done something really awful and I don't think she'll be able to forgive me and everything is going to be _ruined_." I said all of that in about half a second, and Kiba looked understandably confused.

"Why don't you take that from the beginning and explain it a little better?" He suggested.

"I was planning to," I said with a small smile, "I just had to get that out of my system first." I took a deep breath before relaying the whole thing, from laughing with Sakura to telling Kin off in my room. Kiba was silent for a while, thinking about it.

"So you only actually insulted her, what, twice? And not very convincingly at that."

I shook my head firmly, "The point is that I betrayed her. It was even worse than the first time we ran into Kin..."

"You what?" He was confused again.

"Well... when Sakura and I were friends in primary school – you remember we both went to the private school?"

He nodded, "You went there right up to year six, right? Until your parents split up?"

"Yeah. Well, one day when we were on our way back from school we bumped into Kin. She was being all intimidating and Sakura was terrified. I was standing in front of her, trying to protect her. Then Kin got violent. She beat me up a bit and I ran away."

"Did you tell your parents?"

"Actually, I didn't go home. Sakura doesn't know this but once I got round the corner I stopped. I couldn't bear to just leave, but I was too scared to go back so I watched what happened next from around the corner."

"And what happened?"

I closed my eyes, remembering.

_Kin was laughing, delighted at the way I'd ran from her. Sakura was crying. She tried to wipe her eyes, suppress the tears somehow, but it didn't have any effect. Kin began to walk towards her._

"_Sucks to be you," she sneered, "private school bitches are so fickle, don't you find?"_

_Sakura backed away and I silently begged her to run, like I did. Almost as if she was responding to my wish, she turned around. And Kin grabbed the end of her long pink hair, twisting harshly. Sakura cried out in pain and crumpled to the ground._

_Kin started to walk backwards dragging Sakura by the hair as she went. The smaller girl grabbed her school bag and started fumbling around inside. Kin paused, curious._

"_What are you looking for? Your mobile? I'll take it off you before you get the chance to call mummy." She pulled the pink hair again to emphasize her point, keeping the strands tightly stretched to create as much pain as possible._

_Sakura stopped searching her bag and let out a whimper, more tears escaping from her eyes. Kin hauled on her hair again, and suddenly Sakura's hand was up at her hair. And it wasn't holding a mobile – bad guess Kin – it was holding a pair of scissors._

_Before Kin could react Sakura was free, and with about seven inches less hair. She ran without looking back, just like I had. Except that the only person _she_ was leaving behind was the girl with the cruel eyes and a handful of bright pink hair._

Kiba pulled me to him, stroking my hair gently as I finished the story.

"Why on earth did you want to be friends with Kin when you came to our school?" He asked softly.

"Well... you know what I became after dad got kicked out. She suited me. And besides, better with her than against her, right?" I laughed weakly.

"C'mon." He took my hand and led me through the (now much bigger) crowd on the dancefloor.

"Where are we going?"

"Outside. You're going to phone Sakura." I froze. "What?"

"What do you want me to say to her?" I asked, horrified.

"Whatever you feel needs to be said." He replied firmly. He pulled me easily through the door – not the front door this time, but a back door leading onto a small garden area for people to recover from the heat and noise indoors. This early in the night it was empty, since nobody was getting close to overwhelmed indoors.

I reluctantly got my phone out, finding Sakura's number in my contacts list.

"It's almost half past nine." I pointed out as a last ditch attempt at persuading him to let me off.

"Nobody goes to bed at half nine. Don't try it."

I sighed and pressed the call button, holding the phone to my ear.

The muffled purr of the dialing tone only sounded twice before she picked up.

"Hey Ino."

"Hi Sakura."

There was a pause as we both tried to analyze each others' tone of voice.

"To what do I owe the pleasure?" She asked. She sounded equal parts sarcastic, curious, pleased and surprised.

"It's about earlier. Well, to be honest it's about Kin generally."

"Oh?" The sarcasm was completely gone now, but she didn't sound happy either. A little pained, perhaps.

"Yeah... Look, I don't think I can explain everything over the phone – I'm going to need to do that face to face. But I'm so sorry. For both times. I'll understand if you can't forgive me, but I really hope there's a chance you can. I want..." I had to pause for a moment to rub my eyes and hold back tears, "I really want us to be friends again."

I couldn't hear anything from Sakura's end, but then a shuddery breath came through the tiny speaker and I realized that she was crying too.

"That time when we were ten, I forgave instantly." She said eventually, "What happened this afternoon is harder." I didn't say a word, waiting to see what the verdict was. "But maybe not. Maybe it's easier. If our first meeting ever had been your first day at Konoha High then I wouldn't expect you to side with me against your other friends. Perhaps we should treat this like a new friendship. Start from scratch."

"Does that mean...?" I hesitated, not knowing how to finish the question.

"What it means," Sakura said firmly, "Is that as of tomorrow the slate is wiped clean."

"Thank you" I breathed.

"No problem," she replied quietly. "I missed you, y'know. When you moved schools after year six. Why didn't you contact me? Why didn't you answer my calls?"

"All part of the explanation. Why don't you come to my house on Saturday? We can talk properly then."

"I'd love to."

"Great. I guess I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yup," Sakura said brightly, "At the bus stop again. Bye Ino!" And she hung up.

Kiba looked approving, "I'm glad you two are friends again."

I laughed, the sound slightly muffled by the crumpled tissue I was holding to my face. He sat down next to me and put his arm around my shoulders. "You're crying a lot these days."

"There's a lot happening these days." I said wearily, leaning on him.

The music indoors shut off suddenly, a voice coming over the speakers instead.

"You've all turned up in costume tonight, and you're looking fabulous!" The voice boomed, "As you came in, you were judged on the quality and inventiveness of your costumes and we have some prizes to give out!"

I rolled my eyes, "What a gimmick."

"For 'most sexy girl'..." I tuned out the voice as it started going through a list of titles. After a moment, Kiba sat up straight.

"Did he just say my name?" He asked. I shrugged.

"We could go inside and find out." We headed indoors, just in time to hear the guy on stage repeat his announcement.

"Is he in here? Kiba Inuzuka wins 'most inventive costume'!! Hello? Kiba?"

Kiba, still wearing his branches, walked up to the stage at the front where the other prize winners were standing. He grinned as he was handed the envelope containing his prize – £20 in HMV vouchers – and the rest of us cheered for him from the dance floor.

Except for Kin, who looked incredibly pissed off that she hadn't been given any recognition for her costume efforts.

I found myself thinking back to what Kiba had asked. Why did I want to be friends with her? It's easy to make your mind up about somebody, and twist every action of theirs to fit your idea of who they are. I thought Kin was good to her friends, but on second thoughts perhaps she was only good to people who were suitably respectful of her. People who acted like she was in charge.

But I felt guilty even thinking that – there had been times when I'd been incredibly grateful for Kin's friendship.

With my head full of questions, the rest of the night passed in a blur. At about midnight I told Kin I had a headache and got Kiba to drive me home.

Mum had left a note for me on the kitchen table;

"Ino,

I hope you had a good time tonight. Sorry I'm not awake to see you get home but I have an early start in the morning – I'll probably be gone before you're up. See you tomorrow."

I went upstairs and booted up the computer. There was one thing I wanted to look up before going to bed.


	15. Chapter 15

_**My holiday's almost over =[ I go home in two days. On the other hand, when I get back I can find out what my GCSE results are. I'm so nervous . but not knowing them when everyone else has found out theirs already has been doing my head in!! Anyway, here's the next chapter. Thanks to my reviewers and betareader as per usual, and special thanks to the regulars =P Devil'sLittleBabyGirl, everythingbutnothing and Aiko of the Akatsuki (who has some amazing stories btw, you guys really ought to go check them out. There's a link to her profile from mine, so GO HAVE A LOOK! =]) **_**_Hope you all enjoy the chapter!!_**

**_Disclaimer:_**

**_I do not, never have and never will own Naruto._**

**Study In Contrasts**

I met Sakura at the bus stop the next morning as arranged, giving her a tentative hug. I didn't need to be so nervous – she was as inexplicably cheerful as usual.

"Morning Ino!" she chirped, sitting down on the narrow ledge that was posing as a seat and patting the spot next to her. I sat down obediently.

"What's your first lesson?" she asked, and I practically dove into my bag to find the timetable.

"Oh, I have a free period first thing." I frowned, "Does that mean I could have stayed home for an extra hour?"

"Maybe," Sakura's eyes glittered mischievously and I elbowed her lightly in the ribs.

"Did you know about that already?"

"Maaaaaaybe"

I rolled my eyes playfully, "I should turn around and go home right now." I teased.

"You won't." She sounded authoritative.

"And why not?"

"Because the bus is coming in two minutes."

"Big deal!" I laughed, "I like buses, sure. But I've never felt unavoidably compelled to take one!"

"Ah, but this bus is different to the others." She said knowingly. I gestured for her to explain. "There's a certain lazy genius on this bus."

"What? He doesn't live round here, does he?"

"Actually he does. He doesn't normally take the bus at the same time as us though. I've had Sasuke on his case ever since you told me you liked him. As subtly as possible, of course. We're gonna try to get him into the habit of taking the bus this time every morning!"

I grinned, "Sakura you are a genius."

"I try. Now what are you going to give as your reason for coming in this early when you don't have a lesson?"

I shrugged, "That I wanted to talk to my chemistry teacher before my first lesson?"

"Perfect. Now get your money out!"

There was something nagging at me as I fished out my bus fare, "Why would Sasuke do something nice for me?"

"He, er, he wouldn't. But he'd do something nice for me." She laughed self consciously, "I mean, we are going out!"

The bus pulled into the stop and we got on, spotting Sasuke and Shikamaru instantly – even though there were quite a few people in Konoha High uniforms. Sasuke looked unimpressed as usual to see me, but Shikamaru offered me a brief nod and he kept his gaze on me as Sakura and I walked down the aisle to where the guys were sitting.

"Soooo..." I said inanely, immediately wishing I hadn't. Why couldn't I just leave silence alone? Why?

Sakura was suppressing a giggle behind her hand, and I was suddenly determined to find something to say. Anything at all. On any subject.

Have you ever noticed how your brain stops working at the _most _irritating times?

I thought I heard Shikamaru sigh wearily before he spoke up, "Anybody got plans this weekend?"

Now why couldn't I have come up with something like that?

"Ino and I are hanging out tomorrow." Sakura contributed, always happy to keep the conversation going.

There was a pause before Sasuke added reluctantly, "Naruto and Lee want to see this movie." He shrugged one shoulder and left us to assume that he was going with them.

We didn't talk much but Shikamaru's question had basically salvaged the bus journey, and we spent the rest of the way chatting or sitting in almost comfortable silence.

/\/\/\/\

When I got to school I made a beeline for the Chemistry corridor. Well, after asking Shikamaru twice to explain how to get there.

It had struck me the night before that, me not being a natural straight-A student, I might have to get a bit creative to get ahead in the academic rat race. And then it had hit me. What had dad drummed into me over and over and over in relation to getting people to like me? Find out their interests, then use them. Anko had conveniently made her interests (make that interest. Singular.) obvious – now all I had to do was take advantage of that!

Starting by looking up the chemical makeup of blood, which I'd done last night. Walking down the hallways of the school, I fetched the printout out of my bag and carried on committing it to memory, a job I'd started over breakfast. I'd always been blessed with a good memory (and that, I had to admit, came from mum) which made a lot of things a lot easier.

By the time I got to Anko's classroom door I thought I pretty much had it down. I could read it off the paper for her, but it would be a lot more impressive if it looked like I'd actually taken the time to learn it!

I knocked quietly, and jumped almost a foot in the air when she wrenched the door open as if pulling a car off a baby. She glared at me intensely for about ten seconds before her face brightened.

"Ah! Student! Enter!" She stepped back to give me room to get through the door, and I suppressed a scowl. I had a long way to go if she didn't even know my name yet.

"It's Ino. And I just wanted to answer that question you asked yesterday."

"Oh, hey Ino." She sat back in her chair and put her feet up on the desk in front of her. "What question was that?"

"The one about the chemical makeup of blood."

She leaned forward, more interested now. "You know the answer?"

"Well, I didn't." I shrugged modestly, "But I thought it was interesting, so I looked it up when I got home."

"Go on then."

"It's a complicated mixture containing several things. There are red blood cells containing the protein hemoglobin – the most significant element in that is iron, hence the red colour. Interestingly, red blood cells are the only cells in your body that don't contain DNA. There are white blood cells too. Water makes up a large part of blood, mostly in the form of plasma which contains antibodies, sugar, hormones – which are vastly complex combinations of fats and proteins – and waste products that wind up in the urine." I recited, trying not to look too pleased with myself. Anko seemed impressed.

"Don't you have a lesson with me later?" I nodded, "So why didn't you tell me then?"

I smiled in a vague, self depreciating way. "I didn't want it to look like I was trying to show off."

And with this as my parting line, I left the classroom.

/\/\/\/\

I couldn't quite bring myself to sit on my own in the common room, so I wandered aimlessly around the school. It dawned on me after about twenty minutes that I might have made a mistake when I realized that I didn't have a clue where I was.

Scanning the walls (and floor, and ceiling, and passing students) for some idea of where in the school I'd wound up, I mentally shook myself. What kind of an idiot walks off and practically forces themselves to get lost in a massive school where they don't know anybody and still can't find their way from one side of the front door to the other without directions?

Cue the massive fluorescent arrow above my head; this idiot right here. Thank you very much, I'll be here all week. Probably all year actually, if I don't manage to get some help.

I slumped to the floor with my back against the wall. My motto, as of now, is: if in doubt, sulk. I was just starting to get uncomfortable when somebody decided to make it even worse by tripping over me.

No prizes for guessing who.

"You again, yeah?" yelled an irritated voice from the floor next to me.

"You look like a fucking idiot," came an amused comment from above, directed at Deidara sprawled out on the floor. I looked up to see a tall boy with long silver hair and violet eyes. Next to him was another guy wearing a balaclava. Another one in this school who didn't show his face! Why?!

"What is it with the dress code in this place?" I muttered before I could stop myself, immediately regretting it when the masked boy narrowed his eyes at me in a sinister death glare. I changed the subject, "And you! Always with the bumping into me! Are you blind or something?" I kicked at Deidara's leg as he stood up, making him stumble again. He was bright red.

"It's your fault, yeah. Even if I tripped over you – who sits on the floor? Hn."

I rolled my eyes, "I'm not even going to dignify that with a response."

"Who's the bitch?" That was the purple-eyed boy, and I would have been pissed off if I'd had the chance.

"Ino," Deidara replied quickly, "she's new." He shot me a meaningful look that probably would have been more useful if I'd been able to figure out the meaning. He carried on, "And these guys are Hidan and Kakuzu, yeah."

"Which is which?" I asked, and the silver haired boy raised a hand, smirking.

"I'm Hidan and this idiot," indicating balaclava boy, "is Kakuzu. And why the hell are you sitting on the floor?"

"I like the view from down here." I replied sarcastically, standing up.

"HEY!" Something suddenly came down the hallway at incredible speed, stopping between me and the three guys – now all looking fairly bemused. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING TO HER?"

Now that the mysterious object had stopped moving, turned out it was Naruto (who'd have guessed) who was screaming at the older, taller and probably stronger group.

Deidara grabbed Naruto by the collar and threw him effortlessly to the wall. He hit with a grim 'thud', before bouncing straight back to protect me.

"Naruto, I'm fine!" I hissed in his ear, "Seriously, they were just talking to me. Come on." I'd caught sight of Hinata looking terrified for the poor idiot standing in front of me.

"You'd better watch yourself, yeah." Deidara sneered, Hidan backing him up with a menacing smile.

"If you leave now," Kakuzu said, speaking for the first time, "I might be able to forget for the moment that you owe us for this week. Otherwise..." he looked pointedly at me and I scowled back at him.

Naruto's hands balled up into fists and I had a sudden fear that he was going to do something stupid. Like throw a punch. Or maybe speak. I grabbed him by the ear, swinging him round to face me.

"Listen up. We're going now, and these guys," I shot them a don't-even-think-about-messing-with-me-or-else look, "are going to shut up and stay still while we do. Okay?" He nodded, wincing at the pain in his ear. "Great."

As I led Naruto over to Hinata, still by the ear, I managed to catch Hidan's parting shot, "The cow has anger management problems." Luckily I'm a girl who can take her own advice, so I kept walking. Not that I'm saying his name didn't go on my personal hit-list.

"What are you guys doing around here then?" I asked Hinata, hoping to start up some conversation to drown out Naruto's irritated (and irritat_ing_) muttering.

"We had French." She explained, indicating one of the doors, "The languages corridor is just down that staircase."

"What were you doing talking to those creeps?" Naruto interjected, sounding almost angry.

"Just talking." I answered firmly, but then Hinata decided to get in on the act.

"They're part of... some sort of gang, I... um... think." I glanced at her in confusion, then realized that the stuttering was due to Naruto walking particularly close to her.

"A gang?"

"Yeah," Naruto scoffed, "they call themselves the Akatsuki. There are about ten of them I think."

"And what do they do?"

"Nothing much." He replied bitterly, "Just terrorize the school is all." Naruto kicked a wall in frustration.

"Do they pick on... any people in particular?" I asked as gently as I could. I didn't get an answer though – Naruto just shrugged the question off.

I watched with a frown as he walked ahead a little to discourage further questioning. I would let it rest for the moment, but as I jogged a little to catch up I promised myself that I'd find out more about this gang.

/\/\/\/\

Our lunchtime group that day was the biggest I'd seen it at that point. Me, Sakura, Hinata, Naruto, Lee, Shikamaru, Choji, Sasuke, Neji and Gaara. We pulled the old two-tables-together trick but space was still limited. Thankfully I didn't see too much hardship in being squished between Hinata and Sakura.

"Are you going to the art club today?" Sakura asked, and I shrugged. "If I find out for sure that Shikamaru's going will you?"

"Yeah, probably. But-" I was going to say something along the lines of 'I'm not sure if it's possible to ask that in a subtle way'. Sakura proved me right by shouting across the table.

"Hey Shikamaru! Are you going to art club today?"

He nodded slowly, "Why?"

"'Cos Ino wanted to go, but she's still not sure how to get around and I was thinking you could show her the way. That okay with you?"

He looked at me and nodded again, "Ino, meet me in here after school." And then he went back to his conversation with Choji.

"Well that was easy, I guess." I muttered to Sakura.

"Totally." She grinned, "You don't have a lot of faith in my match making abilities, do you?"

"I don't have a lot of evidence of your match making abilities," I pointed out, "otherwise I'd happily leave my love life in your hands."

"Hmm... that's all well and good, but at the moment you don't have a love life as such."

"Ouch!" We both laughed, "Thanks for rubbing it in Sakura."

"I didn't mean it like that!" She insisted. "Well, I guess I did. But I didn't mean for it to sound rude."

I looked over at Hinata, hoping to get her to pitch in on my side, but she was too busy staring at a certain loudmouthed blond. I clapped by her ear and she jumped a mile.

"Oh! Ino! I'm..." She looked over at Naruto again and sighed slightly.

"Sakura, I think we've found someone who needs your match making skills even more than I do." I commented gravely.

Sakura matched my tone, "You may be right Ino, you may be right."

Hinata was looking alarmed at all of this. "You're not going to... tell N-N-"

"Chill!" I said, patting her arm reassuringly, "We don't intend to do any such thing."

"Nope," Sakura confirmed, "all we'll do is, I dunno, lock you in a room with him?"

Hinata fainted.

I looked at Sakura.

Sakura looked at me.

And we both burst out laughing.

As we gasped for breath, trying to simultaneously help Hinata wake up and stop our lungs from imploding, the rest of the guys on the table started shooting us some weird looks. Which, naturally, made the whole situation even funnier.

Sakura wiped a tear from her eye as I shook Hinata (not that I got very far with that. Catching sight of the bafflement in Naruto's face I collapsed into the unconscious girl's shoulder almost weeping with laughter).

"Are they hysterical?" Naruto asked in a panicked voice, "Do we need to slap them?"

"Idiot." Sighed Sasuke, though he was looking at me like a good slap might be exactly what I needed.

The Uchiha glare was rapidly sobering me up, but when Hinata came round murmuring "lock Naruto in a room... match making..." it set me right off again.

"What? What's so funny?" Naruto wailed miserably, "I want to be in on the joke!"

Sakura turned to me, gasping for breath. "Ooooh dear. If he knew how much he actually was in on the joke..."

"Hinata would probably spontaneously combust." I finished for her.

"What did I miss?" Hinata asked hesitantly, and Sakura and I smiled at her as kindly as we could without giggling.

"Nothing at all."

/\/\/\/\

As I left the canteen once lunch was over, following Choji to Spanish, a part of me was remembering my attitude on the first day here.

_In some ways, I'd thought, it was a good thing that Sakura was willing to take me under her wing. But her friends were unlikely to be the sort of people I wanted to hang out with._

_And did I really want myself linked with this group on my first day?_

_It could kill my chances of getting in with one of the more fun groups, which would be difficult enough anyway! I mean by year 11 the friendship groups are pretty much set, so the chances of getting accepted into an established clique is virtually nil._

Just a few days ago, but it made me cringe.

Thinking about it, my wish to withdraw from Sakura had probably been partially driven by shame. My last real memory of her was abandoning her to Kin's mercy when we were ten after all. After that incident I had begun to avoid her, and since she didn't really have any other friends she mostly clung to Sasuke for the rest of the year.

Although actually I could remember a spiky haired blond kid starting to follow them around in the last weeks of term. That could easily have been Naruto.

Anyway, I had withdrawn from the Konoha Primary school social scene, preferring to spend time with Kiba. And then there was the whole brouhaha with my parents, and what followed was a series of mistakes, bad ideas and straight out disasters.

At least I could admit that I'd made a mistake thinking that this group was below me. Walking into the Spanish classroom and taking my place on a desk next to Choji, I found it difficult to describe the way I felt about my new friends.

Happy, of course. Grateful for how welcome they'd made me (barring the most obvious ice cube Mr Up-his-own-ass... I mean, Uchiha). Touched that they considered it so important to look after me – Sakura hadn't let anybody leave the table until we'd established who was getting me to my last lesson of the day.

But mostly I felt lucky. And it was the first time in a while that I'd looked at my life and felt that.

/\/\/\/\

Shikamaru arrived in the canteen at five past three on the dot. I grinned at him and he raised a hand in a half wave in response, and was he smiling a tiny bit? Difficult to tell.

We didn't really talk all that much on the way to the art room, but I did make sure to brush my arm gently against his more than once.

"What do you actually do in this club?" I asked, and was treated to a sarcastically raised eyebrow in response.

"Art." He elaborated after a moment's silence.

"Yeah, I think I figured out that much" I nudged his shoulder with mine, "I was just wondering if we get to work on what we like, or-"

"We can work on classwork if we like, but there's no set rules. And especially since we haven't started the artistic phase in the classroom, we can basically do what we want."

"Who runs the club?"

"Kakashi"

"Which means he won't be there till half three, right?" I tried to catch Shikamaru's eye to share the joke, but he was staring at the ceiling.

At least he held the art room door for me. Surely that counts for something?

I let Shikamaru sit down first – I was a little worried that if I sat down before him he'd go somewhere else – but before I could start a conversation I was distracted.

"You?! What are you doing here?" I yelled across the room at none other than... Deidara.

"I take art too, yeah! Didn't you see me in your class the other day?" He shouted back, as the red head (Sasori, if I remembered correctly) sighed next to him.

"I would have thought that members of your big bad gang would be too tough for after school clubs." I mocked.

He countered well, "Well I would have thought that bimbos like you would rather be home putting on makeup, yeah!"

I snarled something incoherent in response, grabbed the pencil that Shikamaru had just started sketching with out of his hand and chucked it across the room at the irritating blond. It was a beautiful hit, pointy end right to the nose.

Unfortunately my moment of glory was slightly ruined by Kakashi walking in at that precise moment.

"You're early." I accused sulkily.

"Mmm," His tone was noncommittal, "good thing too. I would have hated to miss this."

"She threw the pencil at me, hn" Deidara pointed out.

"Well observed. Ino, that probably wasn't a good idea." Kakashi was looking mildly at me, as if it didn't really bother him either way.

"Perhaps not." I conceded, "But he was being a pain in the neck."

"What? You started it, yeah!"

I couldn't help but be amused at the outrage. "I'd say you started it. By being here. What year are you in anyway?"

"The year above yours, hn. If it matters."

I laughed, "Yeah it matters! What were you doing in our class? Bit behind in your art work are you?"

"Ino..." Shikamaru groaned from next to me. Presumably he was one of those people who thought it was a bad idea to antagonize people who are able to make your life miserable.

Hm. Maybe I should have thought about that.

"Hah! You wouldn't know art if it jumped up and bit your empty head off, yeah!"

Okay, maybe I shouldn't think about it. Maybe I should just kill him.

"You come over here and say that to my face, pretty boy!" I screamed, throwing another pencil (again out of Shikamaru's hand, incidentally).

Before I knew it, Deidara was on the same side of the room as me. He came pretty close, emphasizing his height to the best of his ability.

"You don't have a clue what real art is." He said with certainty.

"And you have the same hairstyle as me." There was a pause as we both wondered what the hell I'd just said. "But more to the point! You're an idiot. That's what I meant to say the first time."

"Deidara. Enough." That was Sasori, placing a hand on Deidara's arm.

"Hm." The two of them walked back to the opposite side of the room, muttering to each other as they went. I collapsed into my seat.

"Phew. That was tiring." I caught Shikamaru's bemused expression, "What?"

"Well, do you think that was the smartest move?"

I waved a hand vaguely, "Ah, who cares. I'm not scared of him."

"Okay, but might you be scared of _him?_" Shikamaru indicated the doorway, where two guys were standing.

One of them was tall dark and handsome, with longish black hair and dark gray eyes. Itachi Uchiha. I guess it shouldn't have surprised me that he was at the same school as Sasuke, but I think I'd always assumed he was more than one year older than his brother.

I didn't worry about it for long though, partly because the other one looked pretty familiar too – after our little encounter in a club a while ago I wasn't likely to forget him.

"Kisame. What a pleasant surprise."


	16. Chapter 16

_**I'm soooooo sorry for the lateness! I just started sixth form on Monday and I've had a manic few days in the run up to that - my grandfather's suprise party on the weekend, enrolling the day before that, a friends birthday party the day before that etc etc. Plus there was a screw up on and my beta reader sent me an edited chapter that didn't get through, so I was waiting around for no reason. Anyway, rant over, I have to thank my amazing reviewers - in particular my regulars! Thank you to **_**_Aiko of the Akatsuki and Devil'sLittleBabyGirl. And, in case you're interested, I think this is the longest chapter yet at something like 5,009 words (minus the AN and disclaimer, obviously). So... I hope you all enjoy!_**

**_Disclaimer:_**

**_Don't own a thing._**

**Study In Contrasts  
**

Kisame looked at me incredulously, "Whaaat? You? Here?" I nodded, glaring at him. "I didn't recognize you, I mean... I didn't know you come here. Do you even come here?"

I rolled my eyes, "I transferred from another school, geez is it really so hard to get your head around?"

"Well." He said, "Since you're here now, you've probably heard about the Akatsuki." He leered at me, and I had a hard time deciding whether he was trying to be flirty or menacing.

"Yeah yeah," I said dismissively, "I guess you're here for your little playmate." I waved a hand in Deidara's direction but kept a close eye on Kisame. He looked like he might be going into shock.

"We're not a group to be messed with," he snarled.

"Big wow."

"Deidara," Itachi interrupted our little exchange, "Sasori too, please. We have a meeting."

The four of them left the room together and I turned to Shikamaru, "What was that about then?" He shrugged, giving me an exasperated look. "What is it?"

"Well," he seemed to hesitate, "is it absolutely necessary for you to bug the most vindictive group of people in the school?"

"Ah."

"Troublesome." he sighed, "Now, if I get another pencil out will you promise to leave it alone?"

I laughed, "Yeah, okay. But I can't be held responsible for my actions if that blond idiot comes back."

He fixed me with a baleful look, "Tell me you're joking."

"Hopefully you won't have to find out!"

/\/\/\/\

I got home that afternoon in a great mood, opening the front door with a cheerful "Hey mum!"

"Ino!" She popped her head out of the kitchen door, "Good day?"

I thought about it for a moment, "Yeah, it was. You?"

"Not bad, I got a lot done." She vanished back into the kitchen, presumably to go back to her work, and I followed her.

"Would it be okay if Sakura came over tomorrow?"

She looked up from the pile of paperwork in front of her, "Of course! When?"

"I dunno, maybe lunchtime. I haven't asked her yet."

"I think it's a lovely idea."

"Cool" I grinned at her and bounced upstairs to my room.

I had two pieces of work to do, one for English lit and one for Spanish. Both of which were due in on Monday. Why do teachers have a thing about ruining student's weekends with work? Some kind of revenge for all the marking they have to do?

I got my phone out to text Sakura,

"What time do you want to come over tomorrow?

-Ino"

And then went back to glaring at my schoolbag.

"You can't hide in there forever." I muttered to the schoolwork, lurking in the depths of the 'I'm so innocent' bag. "I'm onto you..."

"Ino? Phone for you." Mum's voice came from downstairs. I took the steps two at a time, arriving at the phone with all the poise of a tin can. She handed it over, barely suppressing a smile.

"Hi?" I said breathlessly.

"Hey Ino, wanna hang out at the old playground?" It was Temari's voice, and from the sound of it she was already on her way there.

"Sure." I said quickly. "Who else is going?"

"Mmm, dunno really. Kin, Dosu, Zaku. Probably Kiba. Kankuro said he'd meet us there."

"Oh, I saw him at school actually. And Gaara too." I wondered if I should tell Temari about the Akatsuki's liking for picking on her baby brother, but she didn't seem interested in news about them.

"Great, great. See you there then." And she hung up.

I looked at the phone, confused. Temari hadn't really sounded like herself.

"Mum," I yelled through to the kitchen, "is it okay if I meet up with Temari at the park?"

She came through to the hallway, "Sure, but could you be back for dinner today?"

"No problem," I was already on my way upstairs to change, "What time's that?"

"If you're back by seven, that should cover it."

I scrambled out of my school uniform, throwing on a denim mini skirt, bright blue T-shirt, azure three-inch heels and grabbing a lilac cardigan on the way out in case it got cold later.

The journey to the playground normally took fifteen minutes, but I half ran most of the way and made it in just over ten.

Kin was sitting on a swing, Dosu and Zaku sitting on the floor by her feet, Temari was on the roundabout turning it lazily with her foot.

"Hey guys."

Kin looked up with a grin, "Ino! Glad you could make it. How's the school? So posh you could puke?"

"Something like that," I replied with a wry smile. "How's it going Temari?"

She looked up, skidding to a slow stop facing me and offered a limp wave. "I'm good thanks, you?"

"Not bad." I sat down next to her on the roundabout – a massive gesture on my part, I'd never liked them. "You seem a little..." I let my voice tail off to give her a chance to fill in the gap.

"Tired. I'm tired."

"How come?"

She sighed, "Gaara. He's my little brother and I guess that means I love him and all, but he's so... so... I dunno." She laughed at herself, "I can't think of a word that describes him. But you've seen him in school, what's your verdict?"

"I've seen him too," Kin pointed out from the swings, "no offense Temari but he looks like an emo."

"He's basically nice, I think." I said slowly, "Pretty quiet, not very sociable. Doesn't really seem to like company."

Temari nodded, "Fairly accurate judgment. But you should try living with him."

"Why?" Kin got off the swing and came over, wanting to be more involved in the conversation. "What's he like at home?"

"Creepy?" Suggested Dosu, earning himself a brisk slap to the back of the head from Kin.

"Actually, he kind of is."

"Hey!" Kiba called, "What's with the huddle? Did I miss something important?"

"Nah, not really." Temari shouted back, "We were just about to start grilling Ino about her new school."

"You were?" I asked as Kiba jogged over.

"Yup" Kin agreed, "Tell all."

"Well actually," I said thoughtfully, "I did run into someone today." I looked at Kiba, "Do you remember that guy who was perving on me at that club?"

"The one with the blue hair?"

"Yup. Turns out he's in the year above me."

"Hang on, hang on, back up." Kin's eyes were wide, "You mean somebody was bothering you and you didn't tell me?"

She wasn't annoyed, she was hurt. Kin sees herself as the leader of our group, but to her that means protecting us as well as showing us how to act.

"What did he do?"

"He just didn't know the meaning of the phrase 'leave me alone'." I soothed her, "Kiba sorted it out."

"If he tries anything again, text me." Kin sounded furious, and her anger was completely directed at a boy she'd never seen in her life. That is a fairly impressive show of loyalty in my opinion.

"I will." I assured her, "But you might want to rethink charging in there, he's part of this gang. They call themselves the Akatsuki and they're pretty much feared throughout the school."

"What do they do?" Asked an intrigued Zaku.

"They pick on kids they take a dislike to." Kankuro had arrived.

"You never told me about these guys," Temari accused him, and he shrugged in response.

"They've never given me any trouble. One of them is actually from Suna, same as us."

"Is that Sasori?" I piped up. Kankuro ignored me, until Temari gently reminded him to be polite by kicking him in the shin.

"OW! Yes... yes, Sasori is from the same place. We're probably distantly related or something, most of the people in that dumb town were."

"I was wondering why he looked so much like Gaara."

There was an uncomfortable pause before Kankuro replied, "Well, I've never seen them next to each other to compare." His tone was natural enough but when I looked at his face I could tell instantly. He knew that his little brother was bullied, and he hadn't told Temari. And from the look he was giving me I'd guess he wanted me to keep it quiet too.

I thought about ignoring him, but I didn't really want to make an enemy out of the older boy just yet.

"Anyway, is there anything else you want to know about my new school?"

/\/\/\/\

I got a reply from Sakura on my way back home.

"Is it okay if I come at about three?

-Sakura"

I sent a text back saying that would be fine, turning the corner to my road. I knocked on the door and mum opened it immediately.

"Did you have fun?"

I nodded vaguely, "What's for dinner?"

"I've made lasagna." She looked almost embarrassed, and I remembered how I used to mock her every attempt at a 'family dinner'. In my defense, two people didn't feel like much of a family to me.

"Sounds great." I offered her a wide grin before darting up to my room. Maybe I could get one of those evil pieces of work out of the way before bed.

Dinner was less stilted and uncomfortable than I'd thought it would be. There was nothing fancy or elaborate about the set up, which was nice. We didn't talk much, but neither of us felt awkward. The food was good and I was able to be sincerely nice about it.

I think she almost cried a little when I finished my plate, told her it was delicious and asked if there was more. There was, I ate it, and then mum got out a tub of ice cream and two spoons.

As we got started on the ice cream – Ben and Jerry's chocolate fudge brownie, my favourite – I decided to do something truly shocking.

Ask mum for advice.

"You know my friend Temari," I began. Mum nodded uncertainly, "the girl with the dark blond hair. Anyway she has two brothers, both younger than her, and they both go to my school. The older one of the two, Kankuro, is apparently half there to look after the younger one, Gaara. But Kankuro knows that Gaara's being picked on and they haven't told Temari. Presumably they haven't told their dad either, I don't know. But anyway..." I had to force myself to finish, "... what do you think I should, y'know, do?"

Mum didn't say anything at first, looking at me with a puzzled expression.

"Technically," she said at last, "you should tell a teacher."

"I know that. It feels wrong though. Like it's none of my business. And Kankuro seems to feel that it's pretty important that nobody says anything."

"Okay..." she looked thoughtful, "I think your first step, if it's the older brother you're worried about, is to talk to Kankuro and find out what's going on. But it can't be much fun for... Gaara, was it?" I nodded.

"I know... Oh, and Temari seems to be having Gaara-related issues. She was really down today and she got as far as saying it was his fault before other people showed up and we got distracted."

"How much older is she than Gaara?"

"About three years."

There was a pause as we both went back to the ice cream, thinking about the possibilities.

"I'll think about it and let you know if I come up with something."

I smiled in response, "Thanks. Actually, there's something else I wanted to ask you."

"Fire away."

"Sometime next week could I have a sort of mini party after school? To introduce some of my new friends to some of my old friends."

Mum looked a little skeptical, "Do you think that's a good idea?"

"Ten Ten, Temari and Kiba all really want to meet them. I won't invite Kin; she wouldn't see the point."

"Alright then. Just give me some advance notice so I'm not surprised by twenty teenagers turning up unannounced!" We both smiled at the image, "Oh, and Ino?"

"Yeah?"

"Did you..." she looked uncomfortable, "do you still want to talk about your dad?"

Huh. I'd completely forgotten about that. Could my subconscious be trying to tell me something? Like maybe:

"BAD IDEA! BAD IDEA! DON'T RUIN HOW WELL IT'S GOING WITH A CONVERSATION LIKE THAT! BAAAAAAD IIIIIIIIIIIDEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAA!"

I listened to the warning.

"Um... not right now, 'kay? Sometime. But not now."

"Sure," mum smiled serenely, "whenever you feel like it."

I nodded, took a last scoop of ice cream and went back up to my room.

/\/\/\/\

"Damn Spanish, damn it to hell. And back." I hissed at the sheet in front of me. Like I'd ever be required to write an essay in Spanish about my home. Apart from for school.

I flicked absently through the Spanish to English dictionary TenTen had given me in year eight. If I was ever in Spain I'd just use that to communicate, never mind any of this learning the language rubbish.

I hadn't managed to finish the stupid work yesterday so I'd carried on after breakfast in the morning. I quickly glanced at the clock on my bedside table. Twenty past twelve, I had a while still to go till Sakura was coming over.

We had quite a lot to discuss – the party I was planning, for example. And also I wanted to run the whole Gaara situation by her. Oh, and I'd promised to tell her about why I'd been moved from Konoha primary and why I'd subsequently stopped talking to her.

I leaned back in my chair, sighing.

Despite the difficult conversation that would have to come at some point during Sakura's visit, I was genuinely looking forward to it. I wasn't sure what we were going to do yet, but I figured it would be nice to just hang out.

I had hoped that once I'd finished the Spanish work that time would speed up a little, but no such luck. I made a start on the English, but my heart wasn't in it so I moved on to choosing an outfit.

It was a hot day outside, so I wore a white knee-length skirt and lilac T-shirt (it used to be one of my favourites, with a little pink butterfly motif along the hem of one sleeve, but I hadn't worn it in a while). I put on some mauve pumps and silver hoop earrings.

And then I waited around for three o'clock to come.

Luckily for me Sakura was a very punctual person, arriving at pretty much three exactly. She knocked on the door and I practically dragged her inside.

"Hey Sakura!"

She laughed, "Ino, how's it going?"

"Boring, boring, boring, boring... let me just think about it... oh yeah: boring."

"Well I'm here to fix that."

We grinned at each other, "Great. First thing's first, mum's given the go ahead for our little meet 'n' greet."

"That's good." We moved through to the living room, settling down on the sofa, "What's next then for that? Guest list?"

"I think that would be a good start." I agreed. "From my out of school gang I'll invite Kiba, TenTen and Temari."

"Alright, obviously we'll have Hinata and Neji, Shikamaru... those are the only people we need for the plan. Who else do you want to invite?"

I thought about it for a moment, "Naruto. You can bring Sasuke if he's not too disgusted at the idea of coming to my party."

"He's not _that _bad." I shot her a look and she giggled, "Okay, he kind of is. I'll ask though."

"I'll invite Choji I guess, we got along pretty well in Spanish. Would Lee know what the word 'party' means?"

"Are you kidding?" Sakura snorted, "His whole life is one big party to him. But only invite him if you're prepared for the speech about how youthful parties are."

I paled, "Good point... I'll think about it. Maybe I should invest in some ear plugs? Anway, who else is there in the group? Gaara?"

Sakura looked doubtful, "I dunno about that. I don't think he's really into, y'know, people."

"Temari is his sister." I pointed out, although I have to say I'm not sure what relevance it had. If anything it might make him less likely to come. "I'd feel bad if I didn't ask him." I decided, "But I don't think he'll say yes anyway so it's kind of irrelevant."

Mum came in then carrying two glasses of lemonade, "Do you want something to drink?"

"Yes please Ms Yamanaka," Sakura said politely.

"Hello Sakura." Mum smiled at her, "It's nice to see you again. And you can call me Emi you know." She handed us the drinks. "By the way, have you figured out how many people are coming to this party?"

I started counting them up but Sakura beat me to it; "A maximum of thirteen, I think, counting me and Ino. Will that be okay?"

"I don't see why not." She left the room with a wave and Sakura turned back to me.

"Now. Music, food and drink."

/\/\/\/\

We probably spent a good two hours talking before we exhausted the topic of the party, but once we were done we had the whole thing planned out to its last detail.

"I have no idea how I'm going to remember everything I have to get." I commented, and Sakura laughed.

"Maybe we should have been taking notes?"

I threw a cushion at her, "You'd better watch it, your geeky tendencies are showing!"

"Oh, is that so?" She threw the cushion back at me with a grin.

"Unfortunately, yes. By the way are you staying for dinner?"

She shrugged, "I guess I can – I don't think mum will have a problem with it. Plus, you still have some explaining to do. I'm not going anywhere till I've heard your side of the story!"

"Okay," I said slowly, "I guess you'd better check with your mum quickly whether or not you can stay. Then we can go up to my room and I'll fill you in."

/\/\/\/\

Sakura's mum didn't have any problem with her staying to eat with us, so I led her up the stairs to my room and sat us both down on the floor.

"Right. Where do I start?"

"How about you start at the time when you started ignoring me?"

I blushed, "Fair enough. Okay, the first thing you need to know is that I saw everything that happened with Kin." One of Sakura's hands went up to her hair instinctively, "I saw how you got away. The next day at school... I don't know, I was too ashamed to say anything about your hair going from waist length to almost shoulder length overnight. I thought you hated me for leaving you behind so I started avoiding you whenever I could."

"You could have just-"

"I know. Talked to you, said something, even just apologized. But it wasn't long after that that something else came along to take my mind off the situation." I was well aware that a hint of bitterness had crept into my voice. "About a week and a half after the... Kin incident, I got home to find that my dad had been kicked out of the house. Mum had told him in no uncertain terms to leave and never come back."

"I wondered why he wasn't around." Her voice was quiet, sympathetic but without pity. And she didn't move to hug me, which I was extremely grateful for. "Did you know why?"

"No. And I still don't, actually. I stopped talking to mum that day, except for occasionally insulting her. Anyway, I found out at the end of term – two or three weeks later, was it? – that without dad's income I would have to move to the state secondary school. I was a real brat about it to mum, but I was secretly quite pleased. For one thing it would mean I was going to school with Kiba – the only one I'd told about my parents splitting up – and for another thing I figured it would give me a chance to reinvent myself. I spent that summer creating 'the new me'. My new persona had two main purposes, one: to be someone who didn't care that she might never see her dad again and two: to cause as much pain as possible to her mother."

"Tell me about her." I had to check Sakura's expression when she said that to make sure she wasn't taking the piss, but she seemed completely genuine. I was actually quite impressed at how well she was taking the whole thing. I knew it sounded a little insane.

"Well, she was a bitch. She didn't care about anybody except herself – although I modified that a bit because I couldn't not care about my friends. She went out a lot, had a busy social life. She was hardly ever at home, and when she was she didn't talk if she could help it. She drank, but didn't smoke, and wore clothes that could probably be described as slutty. She was rubbish at school and skipped more classes than she attended. Never handed in a single piece of homework."

"You achieved all that over a summer?" She sounded impressed.

"Yup. And Kiba came too. His parents didn't know what to make of the change, I know they blamed me. Before that summer I was always welcome in their house, but after it... it wasn't all to do with the effect I had on Kiba though. I did something terrible once."

"What happened?"

I sighed, unwilling to relive the memory. "Do you remember Kiba much?"

She nodded, "Brown hair, big grin, constantly followed around by that puppy."

"Yeah. Akamaru. The two of them have been inseparable since forever. One day I was drunk, more than usual... Kiba and I were fooling around by the river in Konoha park. Y'know, the really big one. We were pushing each other around, trying to trip each other up, throwing sticks at each other and for Akamaru. I threw one into the river, and Akamaru jumped in after it. Kiba thought he'd be able to swim it fine, but it looked like he was having trouble. We were leaning over, trying to see him – it was really dark, I think it was something like eleven at night – and I, being off my head, lost my balance and fell in too. It was freezing cold, and there was a current under the water that I hadn't been expecting. I heard Akamaru barking near me, he sounded frantic, and I panicked and grabbed him. I didn't have a clue what was going on – I think I actually went under more than once, I couldn't swim properly in that state. I don't know how long I was in there for, but the river swept me and Akamaru along for a little while before I heard a splash. Kiba had jumped in to save me."

"How old were you guys again?" Sakura asked in a slightly shocked voice.

"Eleven. We were both stupid. If Kiba had been as drunk as me then we'd probably both have drowned, but he never had as much as I did. Turns out he had followed us down the river for a while – and he said he had to jog to keep up sometimes – until we'd gotten to a bend. He knew one side of the river was shallower there, so he jumped in and just shoved us over. With the three of us on the bank, another problem emerged. Akamaru didn't seem to be breathing. Turned out that I'd been holding him mostly under the water all the way. Kiba called his sister – she's a vet – and she drove straight out. I found out the next day that not only had I almost drowned my best friends dog, but also at some point he'd hit his head on a rock under the water. Akamaru was in a coma for three weeks. He could have died – Hana, Kiba's sister, was sure he would. I heard all that from Hana, incidentally. She called me to let me know the damage I'd done. I thought Kiba couldn't forgive me, but a few days later he came round and told me that he didn't blame me. And when Akamaru eventually did recover, the two of them visited together." I laughed weakly, "As far as I'm aware, neither of them bear a grudge about it. But I blamed myself, even if Kiba didn't."

"That must have been awful." Sakura murmured.

"I had nightmares about it for months." I confirmed, "I still do have the occasional drowning dream when things are going especially badly."

"Going back a bit, you seem to be getting along pretty well with your mum now. Or have I got that wrong?"

"No, that's your fault." I teased, "You guys have been the good influence on me that mum was hoping you would be when she moved me."

Sakura laughed at that, "Yeah, sure, like anybody could make you do something you didn't want to do." I frowned, thinking about that. "What?"

"Just considering your deep and meaningful comment just then. Any other questions?"

"Only a thousand! Okay, how did you end up being friends with Kin? I'm dying to know what happened there!" No bitterness in _her_ voice – this girl was good!

"On my first day at that big, scary school I looked for the group that I felt would most suit Ino 2. And when I saw Kin I knew I'd found it. It was hard getting into it – they'd been a tight group from something like year four – but I worked hard at it. There were lots of unofficial initiation tests-"

"Like what?" Sakura interrupted eagerly. I thought about it.

"There was this one time when Kin cornered one of the more unpopular girls and we all had to get a dig in."

"Huh. Remind you of anything?" Sakura seemed more amused than offended, but I felt the need to apologize anyway.

"I'm so sorry about that. I just... Kin is scary, and..."

"It's fine! I don't mind. Well, I kind of do. But I understand. You feel you owe her something."

"I definitely do. Anyway, I passed that one with flying colours. I stole the girl's bag and tipped her books out on the floor, then I spat on them. Kin was very impressed. The first club she invited me to was a test too, a test in what I'd wear and how I'd cope with acting older than I was. That one was harder, but since Kin didn't even bother with those places until we were in year nine I was 13 going on 14 and managed to look older with a clever use of make up and skimpy clothes. The bouncer probably thought I was a 16 year old trying to get in early and didn't bother to call me on it."

"How did Kiba get in?"

"Once I was an official member of the group I just started inviting him along. He didn't have a bad reputation at the school, he'd mostly kept himself to himself through primary school, so Kin didn't object too heavily. Dosu and Zaku liked having another guy around too. TenTen was more of an issue with them, they saw her as a bit of a geek, but once she'd proven that she wasn't adverse to skipping school once in a while and drinking the odd Bacardi breezer they were quite amused by the idea of corrupting one of the goody goodies."

Sakura was opening her mouth to ask another question when mum called us down to dinner. She laughed, "I guess the interrogation will have to wait till later."

"Unfortunately yes. I'm going to miss the endless questions..." I gave an exaggerated sigh, then the two of us went downstairs together.

I felt incredibly happy, going down to eat with my new old best friend. I'd been worried about how Sakura would react to hearing the stories – I had become a carbon copy of the person she probably hated most in the world. If Sakura hated anyone, that is. But I guess I'd forgotten the mark of a best friend: Understanding.

That night, after Sakura had gone home, I found mum watching TV in the living room.

"Thanks." I said, and she looked confused.

"What for?"

"For sending me to Konoha High."


	17. Chapter 17

_**Omigosh, sixth form is such hard work! I never have any time any more T_T which is why this is late. I'm sorry. I just have so much extra work now from school that I genuinely haven't been able to write. I'll try to come up with some better time management, but until that time I wouldn't expect a chapter a week for a little while. Maybe a chapter every ten days or something? I'll do my best to keep writing as quickly as possible, either way. Anyway, thank you to my beta reader, ScarletEmber. And massive thanks to my reviewers, especially the regulars: Devil'sLittleBabyGirl and the wonderful Aiko of the Akatsuki - who has a load of amazing stories that you should seriously go and read! Anyways, enjoy the chapter!!**_

_**Disclaimer:**_

_**I don't own Naruto. Although Sakura and Sasuke say I'm more than welcome to borrow him for a while.**_

**Study In Contrasts  
**

I woke up on Monday morning looking forward to putting Sakura's and my plan into action. I was up and dressed in minutes, downstairs eating my breakfast in further minutes and out of the door with bag in hand with minutes to spare.

I got to the bus stop on the corner and literally about twenty seconds later Sakura came bouncing along from her road.

"Hey Ino! Both early today, huh?" She sat down next to me with a grin.

"Looks like it. What's your excuse?"

"Looking forward to a fascinating lesson of chemistry." She deadpanned, "And there was another tiny thing on my mind... oh yeah. The double-match-making-party-plan is about to be set in motion. That might have had something to do with it."

"Okay Miss clever. Have you spoken to Sasuke yet?"

She shook her head, "I thought I'd let you issue the first invitations. It's only fair really, it being your party."

"I disagree." Sakura looked confused, "I definitely see this as our party. Not mine." That earned me a smile.

We chatted for a few minutes; I shared some of my sharper observations about Orochimaru, she told me about Drama.

"How come you're taking that by the way?" I asked, remembering my confusion when she'd first told me. She blushed a little and looked away.

"Sasuke wanted to take it, and he wanted me to take it with him."

"Didn't you get a choice in the matter?" I was only teasing, but she seemed on the edge of genuine annoyance when she answered.

"Of course I had a choice."

I waited a moment to see if she'd elaborate, but seconds later she simply changed the subject.

"What do you think of art so far?"

I frowned, "I'm not really impressed. Kakashi is a pretty crappy teacher compared to Mr Hyuuga. Why?"

"I dunno, I always thought Kakashi was a pretty cool teacher. I think he gets better once you're out of the planning stage."

The bus appeared then, and we both got our stuff together ready to get on. Sakura paused, "Hey Ino, do you have your sports stuff?" I shot her a blank look and she frowned. "Sports? On your timetable? First thing Monday morning?" I paled.

"I thought that was an accident, or at least optional! I don't take PE."

Sakura shrugged, "Chalk it up to a private school quirk. Tsunade makes us all do two hours of sports a week – at least we're in the same group. The year's split into three for it."

We got onto the bus, Sakura amused and me in a state of abject horror.

"I _hate _sports." I moaned, and she laughed.

"Oh, you'll learn to love 'em."

"That sounded unnecessarily gleeful."

"Maybe so, but just you wait till you see Gai."

"Gai?" This sounded bad, this sounded very, VERY bad.

"Yes indeedy." Sakura seemed to be taking grim delight in my misery, "Think of Lee, but all grown up and twice as bad. And a PE teacher." I stared at her, apalled.

"Why did nobody warn me?" I asked hoarsely, and Sakura patted me on the arm reassuringly.

"Not to worry Ino, it's only two hours. Every week. For the next two years."

I let my head fall against the bus window with an audible _thunk_. Then I straightened up again, "Wait! I don't have anything to wear for it! That'll get me out of today's session, right?"

"Wrong. He'll probably make you wear some of the school spare. It'll be gross. And it won't fit properly." She saw me sink back into my depression, and got out her phone. "You know, we may be able to do something about that part at least." I looked at her hopefully. Sakura found a number on her contacts menu and held the phone to her ear, biting her lip.

"Ah! Hinata! Have you left for school yet?" There was a pause, and then Sakura gave me a triumphant thumbs up, "Great, could you do Ino a favour? She's not brought anything for sports with Gai, do you have anything? Yeah... I think you guys are _pretty _similar in size. You're a little shorter I guess... Don't be stupid." she rolled her eyes at me, "Cool. Thank y-"

I snatched the phone out of Sakura's hand, speaking quickly into it. "Hinata?"

"Oh, Ino?"

"Thank you so much, you're a lifesaver and I love you forever!"

Hinata laughed, "It's no problem. I'll see you at school." I hung up and handed the phone back to Sakura with a sigh of relief.

"Well that's something. At least I won't be in skanky school spare... stuff."

"That is indeed something." Sakura teased, "And I like the way that Hinata gets 'I love you forever', whereas the one who came up with the idea...?"

I threw my arms around her, "Sakura, you're amazing and a genius, I'll never forget that I'm in your debt _and _I love you forever. Happy?"

"Very. Now get off, I can't breathe."

/\/\/\/\

P.E. with Gai was not as bad as I had imagined.

It was worse than my most terrifying image of hell.

There was running, there was jumping, there was rolling and ducking, there was throwing and catching and _stretching_, and all this in the warm up. Then he turned to us and said that we'd be carrying on with our martial arts training. That's when I knew I was screwed.

Sakura was paired up with me, and let me tell you something you might not guess when looking at my mild-mannered pink haired friend. That girl has a heck of a lot of pent up aggression. I was thrown to the floor in that opening spar more times than I could count. Frankly, it was humiliating.

"How long have you been doing this for?" I panted after the seventy millionth time I'd had to struggle up from the heap I'd been thrown into.

"Well," she considered, "Gai does self defense with us for the first half term, swimming for the second, self defense for the third, distance running for the fourth, self defense for the fifth and then we get some great options for the sixth. We vote on it. Sooo... that'd be two and a half years of it in lessons and, since I joined the martial arts club in year seven, I've had a whole lot extra."

"Why the hell is it labeled as 'sports' on the timetable?"

"Isn't swimming a sport?"

I shot her the most evil glare I could muster up, and she countered with a wide-eyed innocent look. Green eyes are such an advantage.

"RIGHT my youthful students!" Gai called out, "Now it's time to work on your..." here he struck a pose with one leg outstretched, his arms bent at ridiculous angles, "side kicks! Is everybody ready?"

"YES GAI! WE ARE!" This was Lee. Some twist of fate had landed us both in the same PE set and I was starting to rethink my earlier assumption that Naruto was the loudest in our little group of friends. He clearly idolized this teacher, this strange... loud... green jumpsuit wearing monstrosity of a man.

And don't get me started on the eyebrows. You could probably knit a jumper out of just one, a hat, glove, socks and scarf set out of the other. And I thought Lee's eyebrows were thick? Gai's eyebrows redefined the word 'bushy'.

Oh, and I'd also discovered where Lee got his obsession with the word 'youthful' from.

"Then let's... GO!" Gai launched into an elaborate dance of side kicks, twisting and turning and yelling as he went. I think there was some teaching going on, but I couldn't bear to listen closely enough to find out.

"Ino." A voice came from behind me. I turned around, but there didn't seem to be anyone there.

"Sakura, did you hear that?" She was looking confused too.

"Ino, over here."

I peered around, then saw some movement in the bushes. I crept closer.

"What? Who's there?"

"Um... could you keep your voice down? I don't want Gai to know I'm here."

Sakura sighed and rolled her eyes, "Mystery solved. Kakashi, seriously, you could just tell him you don't want to compete today."

Oh you cannot be serious.

"Yeah, like that would do any good." The voice from the bushes replied in a monotone, "Do you think I haven't considered that? Anyway, it's just faster this way. I needed to ask Ino about the art work she's done so far. Could you give us a moment?"

"Sure." Sakura shrugged at me in a 'what can you do?' kind of way and meandered off to watch Lee spar with Neji. Obviously they'd given up on the pretense of practicing side kicks and were now trying to beat the hell out of each other.

"So?" I asked, feeling more than a little stupid for talking to a bush.

"It's way below the standard I know you're capable of." The sentence was delivered bluntly with a slight swish of the leaves, and I gaped at the shrub in response.

"Sorry... what?"

"Your last art teacher raved about your ability. Hiashi Hyuuga is no fool – if he says you're an exceptional artist then he's right. But you've been seriously under performing. And keep your voice down."

"We haven't even started the projects yet!" I hissed, but Kakashi responded with a dismissive rustle of his branches.

"I can tell from your preliminary sketches. Your heart isn't in it, and you need to sort it out. I'll be in the classroom after school on Wednesday if you need any help from me, okay? Now I have to go."

I stood there dumbstruck as Kakashi moved away through the undergrowth, making surprisingly little movement as he went. Sakura came up behind me.

"What did he want?"

"Oh, just to have a go at me. Apparently I'm not doing as well as I should. Why was he trying to avoid Gai?"

Sakura laughed, "Gai's decided that Kakashi and him are rivals. Every time Gai sees him, he challenges Kakashi to a contest. It can be anything, and they have to take turns to decide. Gai keeps count of the number of times each of them has won. Kakashi doesn't care about the losing, but he does prefer to avoid all the yelling and thumbs-upping that tend to come from being around our esteemed sports teacher."

I shook my head, trying to clear some of the insanity and make space for some normal thoughts.

"Shouldn't teachers be more, I dunno..." I tailed off, unable to think of a suitable adjective.

"Grown-up?" Sakura supplied, and I nodded.

"That works."

"Maybe because then school wouldn't be as fun?"

I looked at her, dumbstruck. "Sakura..."

"What?" She gazed innocently at me, green eyes sparkling in the sun.

"You did not just say the word 'fun' and the word 'school' in the same sentence."

"Did too." She stuck her tongue out, "And, I think you'll find, so did you! Now. Back to sparring?"

And I was on the floor on my butt before I could even object.

/\/\/\/\

Sitting down with Sakura and Hinata at lunch while waiting for everyone else to show up was an uncomfortable experience for more than one reason.

For one thing, we were looking forward to filling in the rest of the gang about the party and seeing who would commit to coming straight off the bat. For another thing, I was thinking about Kakashi's strange appearance in the 'sports' lesson – was it my fault that my sketches weren't as good as usual, or could I blame his crappy teaching approach (so hands off that the ends of his arms weren't even visible)?

And finally, it was literally painful because of the massive bruises left on me from Sakura's sparring. One word, one syllable, _ouch_.

People did arrive eventually, sitting down in their twos and threes to eat and chat. Sakura and I made eye contact, grinning at each other.

"Hey everyone!" I called out over the two tables the group had spread itself over. They quietened down to listen. "Sakura and I are throwing a party this Wednesday. Who's in?"

The silence after that announcement lasted a beautiful two and a half seconds, before people started asking questions. Predictably, Naruto's were the easiest to hear.

"I wanna come! Where is it? When? Why?" He hollered above the rest of the noise. I flinched a little, grimacing at the volume.

"Have you ever considered a career as a human megaphone?" I asked mildly as Naruto shook his head earnestly at me. "Anyways... um, my house, seven o'clock and to introduce some of you guys to some of my old friends. Satisfied?"

"I would love to come." Hinata said quietly, suppressing a giggle. Sakura was already writing out my address for people: the plan was working.

"Will my sister be there?" A slightly gravelly voice came from behind me. I turned around to find Gaara standing about half a foot from my left elbow, Kankuro on guard another meter or so from him.

"That's what I'm hoping." I replied, "Do you want to come?" I tried hard to keep the note of surprise out of my voice.

"I'll think about it."

"Hey." Sasuke's didn't even have to shout for his voice to be heard over everybody else, "Why on a Wednesday? Couldn't it wait until Friday or Saturday?"

"Why?"

"I just don't think that it's very responsible to have a party on a school night."

Naruto laughed at that, "C'mon idiot, lighten up!"

"It won't go on until too late." Sakura reassured Sasuke, "Just until about half ten. You're not busy, are you?"

Sasuke shook his head reluctantly and Naruto whooped.

"Count us all in!"

"Not all of us, idiot. Have you even asked if we're free?" Choji muttered irritably.

"Good point." Naruto grinned good-naturedly and looked around at the other people sitting at the table, "Are you guys all coming?"

Shikamaru rolled his eyes, "I guess I can make it." Choji scrunched up his nose but nodded in agreement.

"I for one would be delighted to attend such a superb spectacle of youth as a party!" No guesses for who felt the need to stand on the table to declare _that. _I looked over at Sakura, and she gave me a discreet thumbs up. So far so good, now all I needed to do was get the other half of the guest list to agree to show up!

/\/\/\/\

"Seriously? You're holding a meet and greet?" Temari's voice was halfway between incredulous and mocking.

"Kinda, yeah. Some of these guys are actually kind of cool, in their own weird way. I just wanna see if you can get along with them."

"I think it's a good idea." Kiba commented from the monkey bars, where he was hanging upside down.

We were at the playground – we being me, Kiba, Temari and TenTen.

"Will Neji be there?" TenTen asked casually.

"Yup. I got a text from Hinata about an hour ago confirming both of them. And actually..." I tailed off, suddenly not sure I wanted to share this part with them. Kiba grinned knowingly – he knew what I'd been thinking – but TenTen and Temari looked confused.

"Actually what?" Temari asked, "C'mon! Spit it out!"

"Well..." I fought back a blush, staring at my feet in an irritatingly girly way.

"Out with it!" TenTen insisted.

"Um, I kind of ended up getting a... slight crush on one of the guys at Konoha High."

The girls gasped, "Tell me more!" Temari gushed at the same time as TenTen gabbled out a frenzied "Omigosh how could you not tell us before!!"

I laughed and started to tell them how I'd seen Shikamaru for the first time, but my phone rang, interrupting me. I flipped it open, holding it to my ear.

"Hey?"

"Ino, it's me." Mum sounded anxious, "There's somebody at the house to see you."

"Oh?" I frowned, "Who is it?"

"It's... well, Ino, it's your dad."

I almost dropped the phone. "... the hell? What's he...? Y'know what, never mind. I'm on my way back. See you in ten."

I let her say bye before hanging up, then turned to my friends. I tried to smile reassuringly at them, "Nothing's wrong. At least I hope nothing's wrong! My dad's just shown up at the house and I really need to go back there and see... what the hell's going on, apart from anything else!" I laughed shakily.

Kiba frowned at me, "Do you want me to walk with you back to yours? You look really freaked out."

"That might be something to do with the fact that I haven't seen or spoken to my dad in about five years and now... now he just _shows up_ for _no reason_ and... and..." I shook my head abruptly. "No. This is fine. In fact, this is good. I wanted to talk to him." This time my smile was a little more solid.

"So do you want me to walk with you?" Kiba asked and I shook my head.

"It's fine. I'll be fine. I _am _fine. See you guys on Wednesday, okay?"


	18. Chapter 18

**_Oh my goodness... I'm so sorry about the ridiculously long delay on this. I have no excuse, and I'm not going to try and make something up. I'm sorry though. I can't promise that the next chapter will be soon either, because I have some crazy ass revision to do for my first exams in January. I just hope that some people are still interested in reading this even though it's been so long! Thank you's go this time to Aiko of the Akatsuki and Devil'sLittleBabyGirl who let me know that they were still paying some attention. Even if you guys don't want to keep reading, it's thanks to you that I felt inspired to finish this chapter! I do remember that I promised not to abandon this story, and I stick to that. If this chapter has some typos I apologize, but I've just finished this at two o'clock in the morning and I wanted to just get it uploaded ASAP. So... enjoy!_**

**_(AN - I couldn't just leave it ^^ I went through and fixed the most obvious mistakes. Let me know how many I missed!)_**

**_Disclaimer:_**

**_I still don't own Naruto. Although I had a dream about it once. Does that count?_**

**Study In Contrasts**

Walking home was unexpectedly difficult, as if I'd almost forgotten how walking worked. I was about to see my dad again. Inoichi Yamanaka. My father.

When I arrived at the front door I could hear raised voices from inside, just like old times. I pressed my ear to the door, wondering if I'd be able to hear what they were arguing about.

"I thought you said she'd be back in ten minutes!" Dad's voice. Low but light, it didn't have any of the natural seriousness that I heard in some of my friend's dad's tones.

"Calm down Inoichi."

"Don't tell me to calm down!" I almost smiled, it was so like him to get worked up over small things like that. I'd forgotten how much I remembered about him. "What have you told her about-"

"Nothing." Mum interrupted, "We've only just started speaking again."

"Oh yes, you expect me to believe that? You've just kept your mouth shut all this time about how we split?"

"Why are you getting so angry? You're the one that's shown up out of the blue for the first time since you left."

"First time since you kicked me out, you mean. And why shouldn't I be angry? I haven't seen my daughter since she was ten thanks to you!"

"Thanks to...? Oh, I am not even going to dignify that with a response."

I frowned, not sure whether I really wanted to listen to this. Straightening my school skirt – I hadn't had time to change out of my uniform – I knocked on the door. The voices inside quieted instantly and within moments my mum was at the door.

"Ino!" She smiled warmly at me and I smiled back. "Your dad's in the kitchen." I nodded and walked through.

And there he was.

Lounging against the counter with a glass of orange juice in one hand and a cigarette in the other.

I'd forgotten that he smoked.

"Ah-ha! Here she is! How's my little girl?" He held out his arms and came towards me but I flinched away. A flash of hurt passed across his face and he turned on mum. "I thought you said you hadn't been talking to her." His tone was dark.

"I haven't." Mum replied.

"Guys, it doesn't matter." how strange that I felt like the grown up in the situation. "Now, dad, what've you been up to?"

"Oh, not much. Been here and there. I've missed you y'know." Dad smiled lopsidedly at me.

He looked, as far as I could tell, pretty much the same. He was in dark jeans and a long sleeved dark blue jumper with a black suit jacket over the top. His long blond hair, almost the exact same shade of mine, hung in a ponytail down his back. His eyes were brown, unlike mine, but they flashed playfully in the sunlight.

He was like a big grown up teenager. Without much of the grown up part.

"Missed you too dad." I smiled hesitantly at him.

"So! What've you been up to?"

I frowned and looked towards mum for guidance. She was making coffee, her back to both of us. "Well, school. And friends. Just... I don't really know. Stuff."

"How's school then? Did you do well in your exams? You have had exams by now, haven't you?"

Something weird was going on, but I was having trouble identifying it. There was something off about the way dad was acting, and I didn't say anything for a moment while I tried to figure out what it was, playing for time a little by fetching a glass of water.

"Inoichi," when mum finally did speak it was like a dam had burst, "what are you actually doing here? You show no interest in your daughter's life for nigh on six years and now you..." unable to figure out how best to explain it, she waved her hand around vaguely, "I'm confused. You took everything you wanted when you left, anything you didn't take with you you've managed without so far. What's going on?"

Dad's expression darkened. Thunder clouds rolling in.

"For one thing, I didn't _leave_, I was _kicked out_. And my daughter is here and I want to have the relationship with her that I've missed out on since she was ten. Although you're right on one thing, I've managed fine without _you_, you and your lectures. So don't talk to me like that again. Clear?"

Mum opened her mouth to reply, eyes flashing dangerously, but then she caught sight of me standing by the wall, wide-eyed and silent. Her expression softened instantly into worry. "Ino? Honey, are you okay?"

Dad followed her gaze, one eyebrow shooting up as he took in my stiff posture and shallow breathing. He moved towards me, opening up his arms again for a hug.

I dropped the glass of water I'd been holding and ran up to my room.

/\/\/\/\

I was yelling at myself – internally of course – as I went.

_Seriously, how old are you now? How can you not be able to cope with that? It's not even like this is as bad as it got before. Although... although something was-_

I cut myself off there. No use thinking about the differences, what was bugging me here was the similarity. My parents shouting at each other, fighting, hating each other. I slammed my door shut behind me and clambered onto my bed, curling up tight and holding my pillow to my chest as if it were another person, capable of reassuring me.

When I was younger, my parents used to tell me they loved me quite a lot. When I came home crying because I'd scraped my knee in the playground they loved me. When I won the class poetry competition they loved me. When we made up after a row over eating (or not eating) vegetables they loved me.

And then it turned out that they hated each other.

And, if you think about it, I'm half mum and half dad.

So by that logic, mum hates one half of me and dad hates the other half. Or they both half hate and half love me. Even in the best case scenario, they cancel out – no feelings whatsoever.

I pressed the pillow to my face, my breath quickly warming the fabric.

"It's okay." I whispered to myself.

"_It's okay." Looking into the mirror. Speaking quietly but with intensity. Persuading myself._

"_Dad will be back for you soon. He won't leave you here with that bitch." Pausing to throw a venomous look in the general direction of my parent's bedroom. "He's just sorting out a new life for himself, then he'll come and pick you up and take you away."_

I wonder how many children told themselves that when their parents separated?

I watched a TV show once, where some woman was talking about her divorced parents to her boyfriend. She told him how great it was, having two bedrooms, two wardrobes, two sets of toys. "How many kids get that?" She asked, as if talking about some grand prize.

"Too many, I suppose." Her boyfriend replied gently.

I sat up suddenly and looked at the mirror, pleased to note that my eyes were dry. I'd done far more crying than was entirely reasonable over the last few days; it was about time I got my act together.

Without giving myself time to think about it I started to get out of my uniform and into something more casual. Loose, dark jeans – not particularly flattering by themselves – paired with a tight fitting lilac T-shirt. I slipped some pink and purple bangles on my left wrist and changed my plain silver hoop earrings for cute mauve butterfly studs. I took out the hairband and shook my hair loose, then slapped a bit of clear lip gloss on.

To be honest, I didn't even know what I was getting ready for until I heard my mobile ring from my bag downstairs.

I took the steps three at a time, sprinting across the hallway to my schoolbag. I answered the phone breathlessly, "Hey?"

"Um, hi... Ino?"

"Yeah it's me. Hinata?"

"Yes. I was wondering if, if you didn't have anything else you were doing, you would like to come to my house? For dinner?" She sounded so anxious!

"Abso-bloody-lutely" I sighed, "Hinata you have the timing of an angel. Can you give me your address?"

She laughed, slightly embarrassed, and began to reel off the street name and number. I grabbed a biro out of my pencil case and scrawled the information down on my arm.

By this time mum and dad had ceased their bickering and were in the hallway, looking at me with concern and confusion, respectively. I turned to them without looking either in the eyes.

"I'm going to a friend's house. I'm eating there. I'll be back before eleven."

Dad raised an eyebrow and grinned cheekily, "Meeting a boyfriend?" I looked at him blankly but he continued, undeterred, "You always were popular with the boys in your class." He shook his head fondly and I was suddenly torn. I could laugh and agree with him like I always had done. Or I could do what I did – turn on my heel with a disbelieving shake of the head, walk stiffly through the front door and head down the road to the bus stop.

/\/\/\/\

I got to Hinata's house about forty minutes later. I had been nervous about finding it, but when I actually got there... let's just say it didn't turn out to be a problem. Hinata hadn't really needed to give me a house number – there were only about two houses on the street, both enormous, stood imperiously behind equally imposing wrought iron gates, one of which had "Hyuuga" in gold lettering above the intercom button.

Moments after I pressed the button a smooth voice, slightly distorted by the tiny speaker, came through. "Hyuuga residence, how can I help?" I gulped, "Um, hi, I'm a friend of Hinata's and-" The woman at the other end cut me off, "Ino Yamanaka?" I nodded, then remembered that I was talking through an intercom. "Yeah. I mean, yes, I am."

"Excellent. Come on through." The gates glided open without a sound and I walked into the small stone courtyard, looking around with eyes the size of saucers I'm sure. The house was about four times the size of mine, possibly three floors. The front of the building was beautiful, the ground and first floor in red brick with the top floor exterior whitewashed. The roof was in a deep red/brown slate. The courtyard I was walking through was done in slabs of different sized pale cream-coloured stone with terracotta pots of red flowers – I have no idea what kind – around the edge.

I walked up to the front door and paused, not sure what was supposed to come next. Should I knock? Or would the intercom woman open the door for me? I was just lifting my hand to give the first option a try when the door opened, Hinata peering at me from the brightly lit hallway on the other side. As soon as she recognised me she smiled and I grinned back.

"Nice place you've got here." I said lightly and Hinata flushed, laughing almost uncomfortably. She stepped back to let me walk in, and I looked around the room appreciatively. It was beautiful but not overdone. Like the outside, it was simple but lovely. And clearly expensive.

"Would you like to come upstairs?" Hinata asked. I frowned at her, "Y'know, you don't need to go all formal on me. Hinata looked surprised then looked around the room as if worried that someone might have heard. I sighed and started walking towards the enormous staircase ahead of me. "Which way to your room?" Hinata nodded quickly, relieved to be back in territory she was sure of, and led the way up the wide stairs. At the top we turned left into another hallway and walked almost to the end before turning right again and coming face to face with the door to Hinata's room. I followed her in, looking around with interest.

The room wasn't actually all that big, in comparison to the rest of the house at least, and the style was very simple. The floor was light wood with a large lilac rug covering the area next to the double bed in the middle of the room. The sheets and duvet were white with light purple flowers embroidered around the edges and the walls were pale pink with a flower petal pattern painted above the chest of drawers standing beside the window.

There was a comfy looking purple chair in one corner with a tall reading lamp on one side and a bookcase on the other, and next to the door we'd just entered through there was a desk with text books and folders stacked on it.

Even while looking around at all of this I didn't fail to notice that as soon as the door was closed behind us Hinata relaxed, letting out a faint sigh as she moved towards the chair. "You okay?" I asked while running a hand over the books in her bookcase, "You seemed a little tense out there." When she didn't answer me after a moment I glanced over to where she was sitting. Hinata was looking at me with a thoughtful expression, but when I made eye contact she smiled weakly and shrugged, looking away.

"I do tend to be a little more... stressed at home." she said quietly. "Thank you for coming over." I snorted, thinking of what Hinata had gotten me out of back at home. Remembering how I'd left dad I suddenly felt very tired, and strangely lonely. I passed a hand in front of my eyes, waiting for the moment to pass, and heard the soft pad of bare feet over the floor as Hinata walked hesitantly over to me.

"Ino, I don't mean to pry but... are you alright?"

I lowered my hand and shook my head mutely. Hinata's eyebrows pulled together in a concerned frown, "Can you tell me what's wrong?" I hesitated, about to shake my head again, before changing my mind. I nodded slowly, "I _can_, but I don't know if now's the best time." Hinata seemed to accept that; the following silence was thoughtful but not uncomfortable.

"So why the sudden dinner invite?" I asked eventually, making my way over to perch on the edge of her bed. Hinata came over to join me with a sigh, "It's quite a silly reason." She warned me, "the thing is... it's a big family dinner tonight. Neji will be here, mother and father, my grandparents and even the younger cousins from mother's side. My parents always offer my sister Hanabi and I the chance to invite a friend round if we like, but I normally don't because," she grimaced a little, "it feels like showing off. At any rate it's always very uncomfortable because, as the eldest daughter, I am expected to impress the family through my academic achievements or musical talent or... something. So this time I had a brainwave of sorts, I thought that if I could invite you you might be able to deflect attention from me a little." Hinata looked at me hopefully and I shrugged.

"I guess I could try. How do you want me to do it?" Hinata's face broke into a delighted smile, "Thank you Ino!"

I laughed in reply, "No worries. But seriously, I'm assuming you don't want me to regale them with tales of my delinquent adventures?" Hinata shook her head, amused. "Not exactly. I think all that you would need to do would be to join in with any questions I am asked. You naturally attract people to you, you're very charismatic, so that should be enough to distract them from interrogating me."

There was a pause then. I'd frozen a little at Hinata's comment about me 'attracting people'; it was so similar and yet so different to what my dad had said as I'd left.

"Ino?"

I shook myself out of the temporary confusion, "Yeah. Yeah, I can definitely do that."

/\/\/\/\

Forty minutes later, waiting outside the dining room of the Hyuuga mansion, I suddenly wasn't so sure of myself. Hinata had lent me a more formal dress, a knee-length deep blue one with a basic round neckline and short sleeves with just the faintest hint of puff and some royal blue lace around the hem to finish it off, and she herself was in a high-necked white dress with three-quarter length sleeves and gold edging that went down to mid-calf.

The family was apparently all assembled inside, Hinata was just waiting for me to get over my sudden fit of nerves.

"What's wrong?" she whispered gently, and I rolled my eyes in response, "Oh nothing. I'm just a tiny bit anxious about making an idiot of myself in front of your family and completely showing you up." Hinata's eyes went very wide at that.

"I... thank you." I waved that off, suddenly embarrassed.

"Come on." I said suddenly, forcing a quick grin. "Let's go impress your family." Hinata nodded and I followed her through into the dining room.

I almost lost my nerve and bolted after walking through those doors. Dining room? Dining hall more like it. There seemed to be at least twenty Hyuuga's seated around the long table, and all of them turned to look at the two of us as we came in. I could spot Neji at one end of the table and I couldn't help but get some pleasure out of the fact that he seemed surprised to see me. It's always a treat to put someone as permanently poised as Neji off balance.

Hinata and I took our places to the left of an imperious looking woman who may or may not have been Hinata's mother and I found myself next to a young girl with a very serious expression and such a familiar face that she could only have been Hanabi, Hinata's younger sister.

I risked a quick glance round the table to get a handle on my surroundings and found myself only half a meter away from my old art teacher. Of course – I'd forgotten that he was Hinata's father. He looked up and caught my gaze, and I was halfway to smiling at him before I caught on to the coldness in his expression. I looked quickly down at my plate again, wondering what his problem was. I admit, I felt a little hurt. He'd always been fairly friendly at school. But maybe this was just what he was like at home?

I looked at Hinata, her head bowed to the table and her hand shaking a little as she picked up her glass of water, with new sympathy.

"So. Hinata." A clipped voice from across the table. "Remind me what subjects you're studying?"

Hinata answered without looking up, "English literature, economics, physics, biology and French, grandmother."

"And are you doing well?"

"I am keeping up with the work and studying hard, grandmother."

"But are you doing _well?_"

I decided that if I waited for Hinata to give me a signal I might not speak at all, and then there would be no point in my being there. Better to jump in with both feet.

"I'm in the same English class as Hinata." I put in, and Hinata's grandmother gave me the sort of look you might give a cockroach who'd crawled onto your sandwich. Never one to be dissuaded by glares, even a glare as professional as that one was, I persisted.

"The teacher is a bit... odd. He won't let anybody answer a question except for about two people in the class. No matter how much you try to get his attention, if you're not one of the chosen ones you don't get a chance."

"Hinata, do you get to answer questions in this man's lessons?"

"Not often grandmother."

"Why not?" This question was actually addressed to me, and I thought about it for a moment before answering, unwilling to mess up with this chance to answer a question I'd actually been invited to answer.

"I'm not really sure." I said eventually, "He seems to like the noisier kids, maybe he sees them as more of a challenge. Like if he can get them to answer the questions it makes him a better teacher somehow."

"So does he let _you_ answer?" I tried to ignore the potential insult behind that question.

"Yes, he does. I'm just not as well behaved as Hinata; I guess that means I stand out sometimes. Just not in a good way!" I flashed my most winning smile, hoping that I hadn't said anything that would cause any problems.

"Mmmm. Hinata has always been very gentle." This time it was the grandfather who spoke, and he managed to make 'gentle' sound like some kind of appalling insult. I nodded along as if I hadn't spotted the implied sneer behind what he'd said.

"Yeah," I turned to Hinata with a smile, "It's one of the things that makes you so popular I guess!"

Hinata looked up from the table, possibly for the first time since sitting down, clearly slightly startled. "Popular?" she asked incredulously, and I laughed. "Um, yes!"

"So, Ina, what subjects do you study?"

I threw myself into my answer with as much enthusiasm combined with politeness combined with confidence combined with modesty as I could manage, and I didn't bother to correct her on my name. The fact that she was talking to me at all meant that I'd done well so far, but I was all to aware that one slip-up could change all of that.

/\/\/\/\

Hinata and I walked up to her room in silence, not even looking at each other until the door was safely closed behind us.

"Did I do okay?" I asked breathlessly, searching her face for clues. Hinata nodded cautiously, "Yes, I believe you made a good impression. Thank you very much for helping me." She even bowed her head a little.

I reached out and shook her by the shoulders, earning a panicked 'eep!'

"Don't go all formal with me! Tell me what's up."

Hinata blinked, then nodded. "Well, my only real worry is that I looked even less competent next to you." I grimaced and she continued quickly, "But you were fantastic at what I wanted you to do, which was stop them from quizzing me all dinner. So thank you, honestly."

I smiled at her, "It was no problem. If you want a hand next family dinner, I'm up for it! By the way, what time is it?" Hinata went over to her bedside table to check her clock. "Almost ten to ten."

I groaned, "I'm gonna have to go soon. Damn, there's so much I wanted to ask you about!"

"Do you think there might be any chance you could... stay over?"

"Uh, I don't know. Would that be okay with your parents?" Please say yes.

"I think so. I can go and ask now if you like?"

Already taking my phone out, I grinned at her. "You do that, I'll check it out with my mum." Hinata smiled and left the room as I dialed my house phone number.

"Hello?"

"Hey, mum, Ino here."

"Oh, hey honey." mum sounded very tired and I wondered whether dad had left yet.

"I was wondering if I could stay over at Hinata's house tonight?"

"It's a school night."

"Yeah, but I finished all my work already," most of it anyway, "and I can just go in tomorrow morning with Hinata. We'll get to sleep at a reasonable time I promise. Please?"

There was an irritable sigh from the other end and I held my breath, waiting for the answer.

"Go on then."

"YES! Thank you so much mum!!"

She laughed weakly in response, "No problem. Make sure you do sleep though."

"I will. G'night mum!"

"Night Ino."

I hung up and a few moments later Hinata came through the door, already nodding.

"To be honest they don't much mind what I get up to, as long as I don't cause any problems for them." she explained as she found me an old T-shirt and some tracksuit trousers I could use as pyjamas for the night. "I mean, it's not that they don't care about me..." she hesitated, "actually, it sort of is that they don't care about me." she laughed a little, "They've already realised that Hanabi will make a much better head of the family. I just don't seem to have inherited that all-important ruthless streak."

I went over and hugged her. "Perhaps not, but that's why I'm friends with you and not your sister."

Hinata's "thank you" was barely more than a whisper in my ear before she pulled away.

"Now. Can you tell me what was bothering you earlier?"

I took a breath in before beginning. "The whole thing started a few years ago, when my mum kicked my dad out of the house..."

This could take a while.


	19. Chapter 19

_**What can I say; I was feeling super inspired. Plus I'm aware I have a lot of making up to do after vanishing for so long! (Sorry, again ^^;) So here's the next chapter, waaay ahead of schedule! **_**_Thanks to anyone who reads this, of course, but special thanks to Lazy Hermit, demon lilith (I will try to update more, I promise) and the ever-amazing Aiko of the Akatsuki (who has written some of the best stories I've ever seen on this site, full stop)._** _**Hope you like the chapter!**_

_**Disclaimer:**_

_**I don't own Naruto. Sucks to be me!**_

**Study In Contrasts  
**

"I came home from school one day when I was about ten years old and he was just gone. Mum told me that he wouldn't be coming back and I knew instantly that it was her fault he was gone. I basically stopped talking to her. I felt like I couldn't trust her anymore; she'd made my dad disappear, what might she do next? And she'd done a thorough job too. Dad didn't visit, didn't call, didn't even write. I used to hear about people who'd parents had split up and they'd only see their mum or their dad once a month and they would _complain_ about that. I was like, are you kidding? I don't see my dad at _all. That _sucks." I shook my head slowly, "I'd always been closer to dad. He and I were... very similar. I couldn't believe that he'd just leave me, so I figured mum had to be keeping him away."

We both looked up suddenly as the door to Hinata's room opened without warning. Neji came through, knocking briefly as he passed, but stopped short when he saw me.

"That's twice in one day." I said lightly, "You're a lot more easily surprised than I thought."

"Hinata, what's she doing here?"

I rolled my eyes, "I felt like staying over and luckily your cousin is very obliging."

Neji shot a venomous glare in my direction, "I'm aware of that. Don't you have parties to be getting drunk at?" I raised an eyebrow at him, surprised. That kind of comment didn't seem particularly Neji-like.

"Neji!" Hinata exclaimed, "What is the matter?"

Neji seemed to catch himself, straightening up and regaining his usual icy calm. When he replied to Hinata his tone was completely devoid of emotion. "I was going to talk to you about your choice of company tonight, but I see my input is unwelcome at best. Aside from that, I have nothing more to say. Good night." and he turned and left.

"Well..." I muttered, "That was an education."

"I'm so sorry."

I turned to Hinata and grinned, "No problem. I've had worse things said to me!"

"That isn't the point." She replied with surprising bitterness, "You came here to do me a favour, you shouldn't have to put up with Neji's unkindness."

I remembered how Hinata had said before that she and Neji didn't used to get along, and I suspected that she'd been caught on the wrong side of him before.

"But you were in the middle of explaining your situation to me?" Hinata looked at me enquiringly as if she weren't sure whether I'd want to carry on after the interruption.

"Yeah. Uh, where was I?"

"You thought that your mother had been keeping your father from you."

"That's right. Okay... so I stopped talking to her, except for the basics. And at the same time I started to get myself into trouble. I went to a party, this was when I was still telling mum where I was most of the time, and there was some alcohol there. I drank so much... I was completely off my face. I probably would have completely embarrassed myself if Kiba hadn't been there looking after me. He called my mum and got her to come and pick me up. She seemed appalled, and I realised that this was a good way of getting to her. So I started doing it more often."

At this point I didn't dare look up to see Hinata's reaction. I'd suddenly remembered the sort of family she came from, and I was aware that this kind of behaviour might, not shock her exactly, but make her think less of me. I didn't want that to happen.

But on the other hand I felt a connection to Hinata that I couldn't quite explain, and I knew that there wasn't really any way to have a true friendship if I was trying to hide this side of me.

Plus a lot of it was bound to come out at my party on Wednesday.

I carried on, "When mum got used to picking me up wasted after parties I stopped getting her to pick me up. That worried her; not knowing how I was getting home. Then I stopped telling her where I was going. Then I stopped even letting her know that I wouldn't be home. I skipped a lot of school, I drank almost every other night. I didn't smoke though, and I didn't take drugs. I figured that an addiction to alcohol was quite enough to deal with, and I didn't need anything on top of a few drinks to make things easier to forget.

This obviously took a while to build up, but build it did. It went on for years. I made new friends, but Kiba stuck with me the whole time; coming with me to parties, watching over me when I drank myself into a stupor, making sure I always ended up somewhere safe to stay the night. He drank too, but not as much. His parents knew I was taking him down a bad path, but he managed to hide just how bad it was until about a year into everything. There was an awful incident where I almost killed his dog and after that his whole family was aware of just how bad an influence I was. Kiba's really close to his family, but he wouldn't let them keep him away from me." I smiled, "I don't know what I did to deserve him for a friend, but I'm incredibly lucky.

Anyway. The story continues. I just barely passed my GCSEs, and mum got really worried that I'd fail my A levels so she moved me to Konoha high, hoping it would sort me out. I hated her for that at first. I didn't know how I'd survive without all my friends..." I tailed off, not sure how much more I needed to add, then remembered that I hadn't heard a word from Hinata in a while. I looked over at her anxiously.

"Ino..." her eyes were wide, somehow disbelieving and accepting at the same time.

"Are you... do you..." I couldn't find the right way of asking what I wanted to, which was basically 'do you still like me?'

"I wish I had known you all along." Hinata said quietly. "For... a lot of reasons. Oh Ino. I'm sorry you've had so much difficulty."

I let out a short, tired laugh. "That is so like you. How did you become so incurably nice?"

Without saying anything Hinata shifted closer to me and we leaned against each other. I heard Hinata's breath catch and I looked at her in amazement, "Are you crying?" Hinata shook her head feebly, burying her head in my shoulder, and I felt tears on my sleeve.

"Hinata..." I gave her a hug.

"I-I'm sor-ry," she said in between shuddering breaths, "It's j-ust that... I was thin-inking how we were b-both going through hard ti-imes when we were the same age, and... and... I just wish we cou-ld have known..." she tailed off and I held her tighter, humming quietly into her hair.

"I know." I said, "I know what you mean. I know."

And weirdly, I did know. Even though I'd only met Hinata a few days ago I already cared about her like I imagined I'd care about a little sister. There was something so inherently fragile about Hinata, her goodness and genuine nature. I felt protective of her, and the idea of her going through dark times made me want to go back in time and help her through. Plus there was the more selfish aspect of it; that if I'd had Hinata as well as Kiba I would have been even better looked after.

After a few moments Hinata calmed down and pulled away slightly. "I'm sorry," she said again, "I'm always more emotional when I'm stressed, and family get-togethers are very stressful. And then hearing about..." she broke off with a sympathetic look and I just nodded.

"Come on," I tugged at her arm, "We're clearly both overtired-" she laughed at that, "let's get some sleep."

"Agreed."

/\/\/\/\

The next day Sakura, Hinata and I met for a party conference at lunch time.

"If you like," Hinata offered, "I can sort out food."

I looked at her with interest and she blushed lightly, "I get along well with the kitchen staff at home, I could easily get them to supply us with suitable snacks."

Sakura and I exchanged impressed glances and I turned back to Hinata. "Fantastic! That'd be great. I can tick food off the list then!"

"What's next?" Sakura asked.

"Drink."

"I'll buy some fizzy stuff." Sakura offered, "What about the alcohol? We're all underage. Will your mum sort that out?"

I frowned, "Not sure. I'd rather come up with another option if it's possible."

"I can get hold of alcohol. Easy, yeah."

I turned around abruptly to face the walking talking smugness that is Deidara.

"Who invited you to comment?" I asked irritably.

"Nobody. But I thought I'd help out with your little drink dilemma, hn."

I opened my mouth, ready with a smart-ass retort, but suddenly thought better of it. He was a lot taller than any of us, and it would certainly solve the problem.

I tried to make my tone as non-committal as possible. "What would you want in exchange?"

"An invite to the party, yeah." he replied easily, "For me and any friends that want to come."

"An invite for you and up to three friends," I countered, "But Kisame is barred."

Deidara smirked, holding out a hand. "Done."

I shook his hand, then held it up to inspect it. He had a mouth tattooed on his palm.

"What... the hell?"

"No comment, hn." He replied, still grinning from ear to ear. "Any requests in terms of the alcohol, yeah?"

I turned to Sakura and Hinata to see if they had any ideas.

"Bacardi Breezers?" Sakura suggested, "And maybe beer. No big bottles of anything; we don't want people swigging from litre bottles of neat vodka."

I nodded at Deidara, "Yeah, that makes sense. Do you have a mobile number? I'll text you the party details."

"Sure, un." He wrote his number out on a scrap of paper torn out of an exercise book and walked away.

"You know, that may not have been your best idea." Sakura commented.

"Those guys are always really mean to Naruto..." Hinata added.

I frowned; I'd actually completely forgotten about that.

"I'll have to talk to Deidara about it." I decided uneasily, "Maybe I can get him to promise to at least avoid Naruto and Gaara?"

"Let's hope so." Sakura said with a grimace, "But in the meantime I'll give the others some warning. That way it won't come as a complete shock when their enemies show up!"

/\/\/\/\

I sidled in late to Spanish, having been a little too into the party planning at lunch, and sat next to Choji with a sigh.

"What did I miss?"

"Conjugation of verbs in the future tense. Or something like that. I was eating."

I looked into his bag and sure enough there was an open packet of barbecue flavour crisps. I reached in and grabbed a handful, then couldn't help but laugh at the expression of horror on his face.

"Don't worry," I reassured him, "I'll make sure to set aside a couple of packets at my party tomorrow. You and Shikamaru are still coming, right?"

Choji shot me a baleful glance, "Yes. And what's the point in buying me crisps? You'll just steal them all."

"I wasn't stealing!" I objected.

"What do you call it then?!"

"Borrowing. I'm paying you back tomorrow, remember?"

We suddenly both realised that we were supposed to be copying some verb endings off the board, so Choji didn't have time for more than a brief scowl before he was distracted and I was left to contemplating the guest list.

Hinata and Sakura, Naruto, Sasuke, Lee and Neji, Choji and Shikamaru. Gaara had said he might come, Temari was a yes and so were Ten Ten and Kiba. Then there was Deidara and whatever three friends he decided to bring. That made seventeen if I included myself. If I could keep everyone downstairs then the party would be a good balance; enough people that you feel slightly anonymous, but not so many that you can't move.

Now for what may be the hardest part: Getting mum out of the house for the evening.

It would be easier on a Wednesday than most other days, for one thing she worked late anyway and there was the added benefit of her not having to go into work until later on Thursdays. This was one of the reasons I'd chosen to hold the party in the middle of the week; mum could feasibly go out for a drink with friends from work and not have to worry about getting up early the next day.

I spent the rest of the Spanish lesson imagining conversations in my head, trying to work out the best strategy for getting a parent-free house for the party. If the teacher noticed how distracted I was he chose not to say anything and I remained undisturbed.

Last lesson on Tuesday was English Lit, which would forever remind me of that conversation with Hinata's scary grandmother, and I sat down near the back of the class feeling tired.

Orochimaru came in and the look on his face when he saw me was truly creepy. Half predatory and half condescending sneer. I mean, how did he even manage that? I took the opportunity to dive under the table to get my pen out of my bag and pretended that I hadn't seen the scariness.

Luckily by the time I sat back on the chair Hinata had arrived. Orochimaru started to talk about the book we'd be studying for this term and I scrawled a note to Hinata;

_Do you know if Sakura got to talk to Naruto and Gaara about Deidara and co. coming to the party? -I  
_

_Yes, she did manage to talk to Naruto. She was quite late to Biology because of it. -H  
_

_And do you happen to know how it went? -I  
_

_She said he looked a little concerned, but his main worry is that it might cause a problem for your party. He's not particularly worried about the potential risk to him. -H  
_

_I guess that's good. For me anyway. I'll honestly do what I can to get Deidara to keep his friends away from mine. Maybe it's more hassle than it's worth? I mean, there must be other ways of getting alcohol in... -I  
_

_On the one hand, yes there probably are other ways. On the other hand, I'm sure we can make this work. -H  
_

_Well I gu-_

And that's where Orochimaru interrupted, snatching the note out of my hand before I'd finished writing.

"This doesn't look much like a paragraph on your first impressions of 'The Handmaid's Tale'."

The fact that his voice was completely devoid of anger made me probably more worried than if he'd shouted. There's something about teachers that don't yell that freaks me out; it's like you never know exactly how angry they are until they bring out the punishments.

"Yeah... sorry about that sir." I tried to keep my head down and look as meek as possible. I had a sneaky look up at his face. It didn't look like he was buying it.

I changed tactics; "But really sir, it's better that we write notes than disrupt the class by talking out loud."

That was better, he seemed to respect my confidence. "I suppose you almost – _almost_ – have a point there, Yamanaka." he smirked, "But I still think I might have to give you a detention. How about this Friday?"

I could have laughed out loud. Presumably he'd assumed that my party was on Friday, and so a detention on that day would be a disaster. I tried to rearrange my expression into something that said 'I can't believe you just ruined my party'.

"Sir, is there anyway I could do it on the Thursday instead? I'll stay even longer, it's just..." I tailed off, looking anxious, and Orochimaru shook his head in delight.

"Afraid not Miss Yamanaka. Immediately after school, in here, Friday." He leaned in and narrowed his eyes as if he was looking at a piece of meat. "It's a date."

As he turned away I whirled around to face Hinata. I could tell by her expression that we were thinking the same thing.

Ew.

/\/\/\/\

I got the bus home with Sakura and headed straight home. I had to catch up some art work, talk to mum about the party and warn her about my detention on Friday and also text Deidara about the party arrangements.

The front door was still double-locked and I closed it behind me with a sigh. At least it meant that I could get on with some work before mum got home. My sketches from art class were sitting out on my desk when I got into my room and I looked over them, trying to see what Kakashi hadn't liked about them.

They were sketches of classroom objects and they looked perfectly accurate. I was going for a collage effect; pictures of the ordinary put together in a weird way, or something along those lines. Our prompt was 'perspective', and I was slightly twisting that to mean 'point of view', but that shouldn't have been a problem. And the pictures were _technically_ fine. Technically quite good in fact, if I did say so myself.

He was right though. As I looked over them even I wasn't finding the pictures interesting, and if I couldn't get interested in my own work then how could anyone else? I took the pile of pictures and ripped them in half, dumping them in the bin by my door.

A great dramatic gesture, but now what was I going to hand in the next day?

Oh whatever.

I got my mobile phone out and texted Deidara:

"My house is on Akina street, number 42. Party starts at seven, try to be here a bit early so I can organize the alcohol. And if your friends mess with my friends I'll kick you out so fast that you won't even have time to say 'hn'. Got it?

-Ino"

I chucked my phone down on the bed and got out my chemistry homework. Even though a lot of it was supposed to be recap from GCSE work the amount of work I _hadn't_ done in years ten and eleven meant that I was finding it all but impossible.

I moved on to the Spanish work, putting aside the blank chemistry worksheet for the moment. 'Translate the following phrases into Spanish and change to the future tense: I am waiting for the weather to change, The chest of drawers is broken, He has lost his new mobile..." Oh this looked grim. Maybe I'd just copy off Choji tomorrow?

Ah. English. This I should be able to do, no problem!

'Analyse the way in which Atwood's language in the opening chapter affects the reader'.

Or not.

I'm so not cut out for school.

My phone buzzed and I picked it up, answering it without looking at the caller ID. Mistake.

"Ino." I recognised the voice instantly.

"Hey Kin, how's life?"

"Fine, but I'm bored. Wanna meet up?" Thank Kami. I'd thought for a moment she'd found out about the party tomorrow.

"Uh... can't tonight I'm afraid."

"Oh?" I winced a little at the warning note in her voice.

"I've got loads of work," I mumbled, "art to catch up on. Sorry."

"How about tomorrow?"

"Mum's taking me out to buy some new clothes." An an oscar-worthy performance from Miss Yamanaka there! What can I say, I've always been good at thinking on my feet.

"Well fine then." Kin sounded well and truly pissed off. "Don't make time for your friends. Is this what private school does to you then?" And she hung up before I could respond.

Which was quite useful, since I couldn't think of a single thing to say to that.

I frowned at my phone, and spotted a little envelope picture flashing in the corner of the screen. I'd obviously got the text while I was talking to Kin.

"I'll be there. And we'll stay away from your friends, don't worry.

-Deidara"

Well that's one problem sorted. Hopefully. I turned to the pile of work on my desk and got my phone out again, dialing quickly.

"Hey, Sakura?" I could hear water running in the background as she answered.

"Yep?"

"I have a schoolwork related dilemma. Are you busy?"

The water turned off and the sound of plates being quickly stacked came through.

"Not anymore. What's up?"

"Well my problem is: I can't do it."

"Can't do what?"

"Any of it."

There was a pause. "Okay. You're taking chemistry, art... what else again?"

"Spanish and English lit. I know you're a chemistry whiz, the rest of it you don't have to worry about."

"Hmmmm... I'll be round in half an hour, is that alright?"

I was surprised for a moment; I was just expecting her to talk me through the basics over the phone. This worked too though!

"That would be fantastic, thank you so much! But how come it'll take you half an hour? You only live about ten minutes away."

"Just got some stuff to sort out first. See you soon!"

Well that solved that. Just as I was hanging up I heard mum come through the front door. I wandered downstairs to say hi.

"Ino, good day today?"

"Yeah thanks. I've got Sakura coming over in about half an hour, that okay with you?"

Mum looked uncertain, "You will do some schoolwork when she leaves, won't you?"

"Oh. No, she's coming over to help me with my work. I'm kinda stuck."

The look of shock on my mother's face was almost quite offensive.

"Anyway," I continued, "I have something I need to ask you about before she gets here."

"Go ahead." she still seemed a little dazed.

"Do you think you can go out while I have the party tomorrow?" After all my elaborate rehearsals you can see that I decided the straightforward method would be best.

"Is that the best idea?" Mum looked dubious. Luckily I had some amazing reasoning ready.

"See, the point is to introduce two completely different groups of friends. I think they'll be able to relax more, and therefore get on better, if they don't feel like they're being supervised by a parent." I wasn't sure whether she'd buy it, but it sounded pretty well considered and that might be enough to convince her that I knew what I was doing.

"I'll think about it." Which, judging by her expression, was closer to yes than no. Success! "But can I ask you about something quickly?"

"No problem." I sat down at the kitchen table as she started making a cup of tea.

"About your dad coming the other day. How did you feel about it?"

There was a long pause as I tried to organize my very confused feelings about my dad into some kind of response. Mum finished making her tea and sat down opposite me, watching me carefully. I looked down at the table and shrugged.

"You know," she said gently, "if you'd rather we didn't talk about it right now that's okay."

"No. I felt... I felt kind of weird to be honest. He's almost exactly as I remember him... and I'm not really the same as I was back then... but I somehow felt as if that was what he was looking for from me." I glanced up to see how mum was reacting. She was nodding slowly. "And it was confusing. If he could just come round, I dunno, why has it taken him so long?"

"That," mum replied wryly, "is a very good question."

"I used to think you were keeping him away." I traced the woodwork of the table with my finger as I spoke.

"I thought you might."

I looked up, "Did you ever tell him not to contact me?"

"Well... honestly, yes." I blinked and opened my mouth to speak but she carried on quickly. "Right when he left. But after about a month I called him and told him that I thought he should still be a part of your life."

"Oh. What did he say to that?"

"He said that he wanted to, as soon as he was settled into his new life, but he didn't want anything to do with me. He said he'd contact me when he felt ready and able to make arrangements with me about seeing you."

"And then he didn't." I observed.

"No."

"Well. That's not quite how I had imagined it." There was a long silence while I absorbed this new information. "Why did you kick him out of the house?"

Mum sighed, "That's a... long and unpleasant story. And I think your father wants to talk to you about it before I do."

"Who cares what he wants?" I muttered, and mum laughed.

"Honestly, I don't know. But I do think that it would be a good idea to hear his side of the story."

"Well, when can I get that then?"

"He suggested that he could take you out sometime this weekend."

I felt my eyes widen slightly, "Well that kind of came out of nowhere."

"Maybe," she smiled, "But he seemed pretty enthusiastic about the idea. What do you say?"

"I say..." I thought about it for a moment, "let me know where he wants to take me. But yeah, I'll give it a go."

"Fantastic." Mum stood up, looking for a moment as if she wanted to hug me, then turned around to take her mug over to the sink. "I'll call him later."

/\/\/\/\

I was half-heartedly reading a magazine in my room when I heard someone knocking on the front door downstairs. I checked my watch; if it was Sakura she was almost ten minutes late. Not that it was a big deal. Mum opened the door as I got to the top of the stairs and Sakura grinned up at me.

"Hey Ino," I went downstairs and Sakura came in.

"Hi, you okay?" I went to close the door but Sakura caught my arm.

"I'm good..." she grinned at me, still not letting me close the door.

"Uh, Sakura-" I was going to ask why she was being so weird, but my question was answered when Hinata and Choji appeared in the doorway.

"Hello Ino!" Hinata said, accompanied by a shy wave from Choji.

"I decided to call in the experts," Sakura said smugly, "Lead the way!"

I turned without a word to head upstairs, my friends' footsteps audible behind me.

I don't think I'd ever been happier to do schoolwork in my life.


	20. Chapter 20

_**Hey guys! Chapter 20 has arrived! I have to say, I've been quite excited about this moment for a while. I don't want to give anything away, but I really really hope people enjoy this one. I am so grateful that it is actually impossible to put into words that people have carried on reading my story! Obviously that means a thank you to everyone who's reading but I'm giving out specific thanks to my regular reviewers, that means Devil'sLittleBabyGirl (Happy New Years to you too, and I'll try not to do it again!), demon lilith (I'm afraid you'll have to wait a couple of chapters for your answers, but they are DEFINITELY coming) and most of all to Aiko of the Akatsuki (thank you a million times for inspiring me not only with your kind reviews, but also with your own amazing story! I owe you). **_

_**Disclaimer**_

_**I really really wish I owned Naruto. But I really really don't.**_

**Study In Contrasts  
**

I woke up the next morning in a really good mood, but it took me a moment to work out why.

Then I remembered that last night my friends had dropped everything to help me out with my schoolwork.

And I had finally started to get some answers out of mum about her separation from dad.

And I was throwing a party that evening.

Well that might just explain it.

I practically jumped out of bed and into the shower. I've always loved washing my hair in preparation for a party. I take a little longer over it than I do normally, making sure that I get every single strand clean and then every last trace of shampoo washed out after. I put my hair up in a towel while I got dressed and then went downstairs for breakfast.

Mum was just finishing a cup of coffee, clearly in a bit of a rush, but she paused when I came in.

"You're looking very cheerful this morning!"

"I am pretty cheerful," I replied with a grin, "very observant of you."

"I have to head off, but before I do: I decided to leave the house to you tonight."

My face lit up, "Thank you! You won't regret it, I promise!"

"Good! I'll be back by half past eleven. You ought to be winding up by then anyway, seeing as it's a school night. Will any of your friends be staying over?"

"I don't know. But I'll find out today and text you if you like?"

"Sounds good." Mum smiled at me, "Gotta go, see you tonight. Have fun!" She dumped her empty mug in the sink and left, grabbing her coat and bag on the way out. That was the last element of the party planning sorted then, now all I had to worry about was making sure nothing too catastrophic happened during it.

I made myself some hot chocolate and went back upstairs to take advantage of mum's expensive hairdryer.

/\/\/\/\

Sakura met me at the bus stop, running up and skidding to a halt in front of me.

"Today is the day." She intoned solemnly, then broke into a grin, "I sure hope your house is all ready!"

"If it isn't I'll just have you sort it out after school." I poked my tongue out at her and we both laughed. "Hey, do you think anyone's gonna need to stay over after? It's not finishing too late, or at least that's the plan, but my mum raised the point."

Sakura considered for a moment. "Nah, I don't think so. They'd have said already."

"That makes sense. By the way, thanks again for helping out last night."

"Seriously, quit thanking me: it was no problem."

The bus arrived and we got on, heading straight for the empty seats at the back.

"How many people will be there tonight then?"

I did another mental count, "I think it was about seventeen including us. Oh, I forgot to tell you yesterday; I texted Deidara"

"Aha! And are he and his friends going to put aside the giant dickhead sides of their natures for the night?"

"So he says. If he can't control himself I'll just have to kick him out."

Sakura looked amused, "He's about a foot taller than you."

"I have my ways." I replied with a mysterious smile, and Sakura snorted.

"Oh I bet you do."

"Hey!" I faced her with mock indignation, "What's that supposed to mean?"

Sakura just giggled, which of course set me off too, and we spent a couple of minutes trying to look each other in the eyes without collapsing into hysterics again.

"So," she said eventually, still grinning, "am I coming straight to your house after school to help set up?"

"That'd be really great. You seem like a natural organizer – which could probably be useful"

"Whoa Ino, don't go mad on the compliments there."

I laughed again, whacking her with the back of my hand, "Oh shut up. Wait – I actually have some serious news!"

"Go on then."

I hesitated before telling her, "My dad wants to meet up with me this weekend."

Sakura looked at me seriously for a moment. "Wow. That's pretty big for you, right?"

I nodded, "Yeah... I'm a little nervous. I saw him the other day... did I actually tell you about that?" from the look of complete bewilderment on her face, I'd assume the answer to that was a resounding 'no'. "Oh, right, well he came round out of the blue..."

"What was that like?"

I laughed lightly, "a bit of a disaster actually. He tried to hug me, I dropped a glass and ran up to my room, then escaped over to Hinata's house – but not before he managed to make some slightly inappropriate comment about me being popular with the boys in my class."

"Ouch."

"Exactly." I shook my head, "He's... well this is the problem: I don't know who or what he is now. It's very weird."

"Well I'm going to want you to at least call, but preferably come over, as soon as you're done meeting him so we can discuss and dissect every second of conversation."

I shot Sakura a sideways glance, "The alarming thing about that is that I'm not sure any part of that was a joke."

"Oh ha-ha! Fine, not every second. We'll take a segment of six to ten seconds from every two and a half minutes, create line graphs to represent the changes in mood-" by that time we were both laughing too much for Sakura to carry on.

"Y'know," I said after taking a deep breath to calm myself down, "Fun though that sounds? I think I'll just send you a summary."

"Fine. Be that way." Sakura turned away dramatically, somehow managing to smack her head on the bus window as she did so. It took us the rest of the bus journey to recover from that one.

/\/\/\/\

I walked to art with Shikamaru after break as per usual.

"So I can count on seeing you tonight?" I asked, trying to put a subtle hint of flirt in my tone without sounding like a slut.

"Uh, yeah."

Good thing I didn't like the guy for his conversational skills.

"Wow, that's deep." I teased, "Good to see you're feeling so sociable today. That'll help you enjoy the party."

He looked up at the ceiling as we walked, clearly exasperated.

"Oh fine, fine." I said, "Don't talk to me then. I don't care." I heard him sigh and turned a grin on him. "Aw, don't worry Shika. I'm just messing with you. How are your sketches going?"

"Drawing is a drag." He proclaimed, and I nodded along.

"It certainly can be. I had about twenty basic sketches finished, but I ripped them all up."

There was a short pause. Then, "Seriously?"

"Yup."

Another pause. "Why?"

I shrugged, "I don't really know. They were just... wrong somehow. Kakashi sought me out to tell me that they weren't up to scratch and when I went back to look at them I realized he was right. So I ripped them up. I have to start from scratch now."

"That's..."

"Pretty sucky." I finished for him, and he nodded. "I just hope that inspiration strikes soon or I'm going to have way too much to catch up on." Shikamaru held the door of the classroom open and I followed him through, only to find myself whacked on the head by an unknown force.

Strike that, whacked on the head by a very known, very blonde force.

"What the hell was that for, pretty boy?" I snapped at Deidara, who simply grinned at me, still holding his weapon of choice: a hollow plastic rolling pin.

"You wanted inspiration to strike, bimbo." He retorted cheerfully, "I'm just helping out, hn."

I rolled my eyes, "You're funny, you are," and went to sit down next to Shikamaru.

"By the way, yeah," Deidara said as he sat himself down next to me, "is there a dress code for this party?"

Unbelievable. "So not only do you have a girl's hairstyle, you're also stressing about what to wear? For real?"

"Yeah, in fact I'm trying out some new foundation today as well. What do you think?" He deadpanned, "But seriously, yeah. One of my chosen friends is a girl and she wants to know what to wear. Hn."

"Ahh," I said in a knowing tone, "Bringing your girlfriend? Tell her to go with club-casual." he looked at me blankly, "Basically, anything you'd wear out during the day but shorter, tighter and preferably with a bit of sparkle."

"I'll pass it on, hn." And with that he stood up again and went over to his sculpting in the corner.

"What an ass." I muttered, and Shikamaru nodded distractedly. I watched him work with his clay for a little while though – I had nothing better to do until our teacher showed up to help me out. "Talented ass though."

"What are you talking about?" Shikamaru asked, and I laughed.

"Just trying to see the good in people. Don't mind me." Shikamaru shook his head a little despairingly.

Almost fifteen minutes later Kakashi came in, his nose in a book.

"Hey, sir." I walked straight up to him.

"Ino. Excellent. Let's talk about your sketches."

"I threw them out." I said simply. "You were right, they were... not _bad _exactly. Just lacking."

Kakashi nodded, "Tell me what the idea was."

"Well, I wasn't really sure-"

"That will have been the problem."

"Yeah. What I was going for was taking the prompt 'perspective' and thinking of looking at things from different points of view."

Kakashi was nodding enthusiastically, "I like that idea. But what was with the classroom objects?"

I shrugged, "Trying to make something unusual out of the usual. I'll come up with something better, I promise."

"Good." I turned to go back to my seat, but I heard a cough from behind me and turned back around. "Try thinking of something important to you. You usually make better art out of things you care about."

"No problem."

I sat down next to Shikamaru with a new idea already forming in my head and my fingers itching to get sketching. So maybe Kakashi wasn't as bad a teacher as I'd thought at first.

/\/\/\/\

Sakura and I caught the first bus back, practically fizzing with excitement. We got back to my house and I immediately set to moving anything breakable to safe places while Sakura went and hid all the jewelery and other small, expensive and therefore easily steal-able things upstairs. Just in case – after all, Deidara and his friends were a bit of an unknown quantity.

Hinata arrived just over forty minutes later laden down with food, which was Sakura's cue to go out and buy soft drinks and fetch her clothes and makeup. The three of us had decided that it would be more fun to get ready together.

I put out most of the food Hinata had provided in bowls on the kitchen table – for the record, we had Doritos, salt and vinegar chipsticks, midget gems, maltesers and, bizarrely, mini sausages – and she helped me pull together my best music into one party playlist on my ipod.

When Sakura got back with massive bottles of coke, lemonade and fanta I knew we were almost set. It was only five o'clock so I fetched a ready-made pizza from the fridge and stuck it in the oven.

"Y'know something," I said as I sat down at the table with them, "I think we've done a damn fine job so far."

"Definitely." Sakura said, seconded by a firm nod from Hinata. We ate the pizza together without a lot of small talk, just enjoying hanging out together and feeling like we'd achieved something.

"I have to say," Hinata commented as I chucked away the pizza packaging, "I'm looking forward to meeting your friends from your old school, Ino."

I laughed, "I'm just hoping nobody kills anyone. If we get through this evening without any serious injuries I'll count it a success."

Hinata looked a little worried for a moment, but Sakura nudged her with an elbow.

"I think Ino's exaggerating the potential danger."

"Just a little," I said with a grin.

"Anyway, when are we gonna get ready?" Sakura was looking up at the clock.

"It's, what, half five now?" Sakura nodded, "Well, we could start getting ready soon. I reckon we should aim to be ready by six thirty – that way there's no way anyone will turn up before we're done."

"That sounds like a good idea." Hinata said, "What should we do until then?"

Sakura shrugged and I looked around the kitchen, slightly hoping that I'd get inspiration from the sink or surfaces.

I heard my phone ring from the hallway and went out to get it. The caller ID said Kiba, and I picked up a little nervously.

"Hey."

"Hey! Ino, how're you?"

"I'm good thanks Kiba. Just setting up for the party tonight – you still coming?"

"Hell yes! Even if you haven't spoken to me in freaking ages."

"Ages! I saw you on Monday! It's been two days!"

"We used to meet up _every _day." His tone was jokey, but there was a question there too.

"Just because we don't see each other 24/7, doesn't mean we're not best friends." I said decisively.

Kiba laughed, "Okay, fair enough. I'm looking forward to this y'know. Can't wait to meet your new friends. And this guy you have a crush on!"

"Oh yeah, I'd forgotten that I'd told you about that."

"Just ages ago. I even remember his name."

"Ooh, get you!"

"Shut up. I'll be expecting a personal introduction to this _Shikamaru _guy, so I can give him the best friend seal of approval. Or otherwise."

"I look forward to it. I gotta go though, Sakura and Hinata are here and I ought to be entertaining them like a good hostess."

"Got it. See you later Ini."

"Laters." I hung up, smiling at the phone, then walked back into the kitchen where Sakura seemed to be harassing Hinata over something.

"You'd better," Sakura was saying in an ominous voice, "Or I'll take the matter out of your hands."

"Sakura..." Hinata was blushing furiously and regarding our pink-haired friend with horror in her eyes.

"It's a party! A match-making party, amongst other things! We're trying to get people together! Join in the spirit dammit!"

Ah. It was about Naruto.

"Hinata," I sighed as I sat down, "Can I ask... what do you see in him?"

Hinata looked down at the table and pressed her index fingers together at the tips. "I like... his determination to succeed... his loyalty to his friends... his kindness..."

"He does also have a six-pack." Sakura put in, and Hinata promptly fainted. Sakura and I looked at her pityingly.

"Does he really?" I asked as I got up to get a glass of water.

"Yup. He and Sasuke go to the same gym, and I go sometimes too. For the swimming. Naruto is, technically speaking, fit. But I have no idea how it's possible to actually fancy him."

"This is what I'm struggling to get my head round." I agreed, pouring the cold water out on Hinata's face. She came round spluttering and Sakura helped her to her feet.

"Come on," I said, "Let's go upstairs and start making ourselves beautiful."

/\/\/\/\

One hour and eleven minutes later all three of us were ready, and looking fantastic.

Sakura was in a crimson tank top and black denim hot pants over black tights and very funky ankle boots in the same shade as the top. Her makeup was equally dramatic, bright red lipstick and thick eyeliner.

Hinata was more demure in a silver skirt and short sleeved shirt in light purple. We'd dressed it up a little with a chunky chain necklace and she was wearing knee-high deep purple boots with only a very slight heel over flesh coloured tights.

I'd opted for a black mini dress with an enormous cutout section in the back, thick black tights and four inch patent leather black heels. Sakura had put my hair up in a basic French twist and I'd finished off the effect with a dark grey denim jacket. I knew I'd only have to take it off as soon as I started dancing, but the point was that it slightly de-formalized the outfit.

At quarter to seven there was a knock at the door and I opened it to see Deidara, looking surprisingly normal in jeans and a black and white striped shirt (open with a dark grey T-shirt underneath). He was carrying two plastic bags and he held them up like a peace offering. I accepted with a grin, "I see you're useful for something then. Come in."

He followed me inside, looking around at the hall and into the living room. I suddenly felt weirdly self conscious.

"Nice house, hn." He commented, inspecting a photo of a forest that my mum had hung up near the bottom of the staircase.

"Uh, thanks." I saw Hinata appear at the top of the stairs and make her way down, followed by Sakura.

"Is this the alcohol?" Sakura asked with interest, taking one of the bags to sift through the contents. "We have a lot here; we should probably put about half away until later or people will just go nuts and get wasted before we're an hour in."

"Good idea, I'll go put this lot away. Could you set those bottles out on the table?" Sakura nodded and I went through to the kitchen, opening the fridge and moving things out of the way to make space.

"Need a hand, yeah?" Deidara's voice at my ear made me jump, almost dropping two bottles of mango Bacardi breezer. I heard him laugh at me and I scowled.

"No, I'm fine thanks. Did your friends stand you up?"

"They're coming later."

"Which goons did you invite?"

"None of the goons you've met already. Hn."

I sighed, exasperated. "Why are you so easygoing all of a sudden?" He just laughed, sitting himself down in one of the wooden chairs. He looked ridiculously long, his legs stretched out in front of him and his arms folded loosely over his chest. His hair was in its usual ponytail, with a fringe of sorts over his left eye.

"Why don't you take a picture? It'll last longer, yeah."

I shook myself out of my reverie; I hadn't even realized I'd been staring at him. He was smirking at me and I rolled my eyes.

"Whatever, pretty boy." I turned away and carried on stacking bottles in the fridge. Guys like him you had to watch out for; their egos were so easily inflated but took a lot of maintenance, and once they thought they could get any kind of positive reinforcement from you they'd never leave you be.

I finished with the fridge and checked the time. Six-fifty-eight, and right on cue there was another knock at the front door. The guests had begun to arrive, and operation match-maker-party was officially in action.

/\/\/\/\

Twenty minutes later everyone was there and I paused the music for a moment.

"Hey!" I called out, "Thanks for coming everyone. I'm gonna make this brief, but this is technically a party for introductions so I'll just sort that out and then I'll leave you all to your own devices for a moment." Nobody looked like they were laughing at me and everyone seemed to be paying attention, so far so good. "This should be quick and painless: I'll call out a name, when I call yours you just give a little wave so everyone knows who you are. Sorted?" There was some uneasy shuffling but nobody screamed out in protest so I just carried on.

"First off we have Sakura," I paused to allow her to wave, "And Hinata... Naruto," he couldn't resist yelling out as he waved, something that sounded like 'believe it', "Lee" who had to jump up and down like an idiot when his name was called, "Sasuke... Neji... Shikamaru... Choji... Gaara," All of these people managed to just wave when I said their names, although Gaara barely lifted his hand. "There's Deidara too, and his two friends who I don't actually know."

"Konan and Pein, hn!" Deidara called out helpfully.

"Thanks. Anyway, that's the Konoha High crew sorted. Then there's Kiba... Temari and Ten Ten! I think that's everyone. Thanks for bearing with me guys, enjoy the party!" I turned the music back on and stepped down, heading over to Shikamaru.

"Hey." he turned around and saw me, offering a small smile and raising his bottle of beer. "You enjoying yourself?" I asked as I came up next to him and he nodded.

"Yeah, the music is pretty good." I grinned and nodded, then felt somebody tap me on the shoulder.

"Super cool party Ino!"

I turned around, "Thanks Temari. I realize you guys are outnumbered, you coping alright?"

"Yeah," she said with a dismissive wave, "We're being forced to mingle, but that's cool." She smiled at Shikamaru, "Nice to meetcha."

He nodded lazily at her, "You too." and I left them to chat while I went to see whether Ten Ten had managed to corner Neji yet. I found her in a corner chatting with Hinata.

"Hey Hinata, Tenny." Ten Ten frowned at me,

"You know I don't like that nickname."

"Yeah yeah," I teased, "You gathering information?"

She laughed and shook her head, "Just chatting actually."

"Oh yes," Hinata said, "You have a crush on my cousin?" Ten Ten nodded casually and Hinata tilted her head, "Would you like me to introduce you?" Ten Ten froze, obviously not quite as relaxed as she'd been pretending, and I laughed.

"Go on, take a chance! Hinata, just take her over." I watched as Hinata led Ten Ten over to where Neji and Sasuke were talking earnestly and I couldn't help but smile.

I felt somebody come up behind me and grab me round the waist and I jumped about a foot in the air with an 'eep!'

"You are hilarious when you're surprised."

"KIBA!" I threw my arms around my best friend and he laughed.

"Wow, not happy to see me then?"

"I've missed you these past 48 hours!"

"C'mon, let's dance."

Kiba pulled me closer to the speakers where Sakura and Naruto were dancing along with Lee and a very reluctant Choji.

"So," Kiba muttered in my ear, "I couldn't see Shikamaru properly from where I was. Where is he now?"

I cast my eyes over the room but couldn't see him obviously. "Dunno. I'll point him out if I see him though."

"You enjoying yourself?"

"Yeah, I am. You?"

"Definitely. These guys are, in their own way, very cool."

I grinned up at Kiba, "See! This is what I was saying all along." He shot me a skeptical look and I laughed, "Okay, not all along. But recently!"

"And I never doubted you for a moment."

We danced to a couple of songs, enjoying the feel of the music in the air, then we were joined by Ten Ten who was smiling to herself.

"Going well?"

"Not sure," she said, "but I spoke to him for easily five minutes about maths, which we're both taking, and he's actually just gone to get us both drinks."

"Fantastic! Conversation with the ice cube is a feat in and of itself! You go girl!" Ten Ten beamed at me, her eyes sparkling.

"Hinata's really sweet too, isn't she?"

"I know." I said, feeling like a proud mum. "I'll go find her actually, see if I can get her dancing too."

I located Hinata in the kitchen, nibbling on a dorito. "Come on," I said sternly, "You're missing good music!"

She looked nervous, "But Na-N-Naruto's in there!"

"That, my friend, is exactly the point." She looked more than doubtful, she looked almost scared. "Hinata, you look amazing. Come out, dance with me and Kiba and show off a little. Or at the very least lose yourself for a bit. It's _fun_, I promise!"

Anxious as she seemed Hinata followed me back through to the living room and to the now slightly larger crowd of dancers – we'd been joined by Deidara, his friend and his girlfriend. I tugged Hinata into the middle of the crowd with me and started dancing, closing my eyes and letting the beat and style of the song dictate my movement. I didn't look up to see if Hinata was copying, I didn't even look up to see if Shikamaru was watching, I just let myself enjoy the feeling of dancing freely among friends.

When you really get into it you can dance for quite a long time without getting bored or having to take a break, but after about twenty minutes Sakura and I went back through to the kitchen again to get drinks.

"You're a natural dancer," I said to Sakura, "I never knew that. Do you go to parties a lot?"

"Not really." Sakura looked pleased, "It's fun though, isn't it?"

"It really is. Maybe you can come out with my lot sometimes?"

Sakura laughed, "Think about one of the girls in your group and you'll realize that that really isn't a good idea."

I though of Kin and Sakura at the same party and grimaced.

"Sorry, wasn't thinking."

"No problem. But I'll tell you what might be an issue."

"What's that?"

"I think some people may have gone _upstairs_."

Oh great.

I sighed and put down my half-finished Bacardi. "Can you look after that for a minute? I'll just go embarrass them all into coming back down."

"Cool. See you in a minute."

I went upstairs, and sure enough both mine and mum's bedroom doors were slightly ajar. I was about to interrupt the people in mum's, but the door opened and out came Pein and Konan. I stared at them, wondering what was going on. Didn't they care that Deidara was just downstairs? They certainly didn't look bothered, except for perhaps being slightly worried about my mental capacity as I gaped at them like a goldfish. They just headed down the stairs, cool as you please, leaving me to wonder whether I should say something or not.

Still reeling slightly, I went and opened the door to my room, peering in. There were two figures in there, up against the wall and clearly kissing. I cleared my throat and pushed the door open a little wider and the pair sprung apart. With the light from the hallway on their faces I could recognize them easily.

Temari and Shikamaru.

Shit.


	21. Chapter 21

**_Hello again! We've officially passed the 20-chapter milestone. Can we hear a 'yay'? YAY! =] I cannot thank you guys enough, everyone reading this story. And the reviewers? I actually love you guys. Demon lilith, Miss Hydrangea, Devil'sLittleBabyGirl and Aiko of the Akatsuki all get my specific thanks - your reviews made me smile, laugh and then get my ass back to writing! Obviously I'm grateful to anyone reading, but it's just so lovely to know that somebody cared about a chapter enough to comment on it. Thankies!_**

**_Disclaimer:_**

**_Don't own._**

**Study In Contrasts  
**

I backed out of the room without another sound and went downstairs, walking through to the kitchen and out through the back door. I closed it behind me and leaned against the wall, sliding down so that I'd be invisible from inside even if somebody looked out of the window. I buried my face in my hands, pressed my palms into my eyes, trying to erase the image in my mind of Temari and Shikamaru entwined around each other, pressed up against the wall of my bedroom.

I saw him first. I liked him first. She'd only known him for two minutes! Bitch, bitch, bitch.

The logical part of my brain reminded me that it wasn't her fault; I'd never actually gotten round to telling Ten Ten and Temari the name of the boy I liked, or even what he looked like. And I'd only known him for a couple of weeks, how attached could I be?

I gasped, trying to hold back the urge to cry out of sheer frustration.

"Are you okay, yeah?"

I almost jumped out of my skin at that unexpected voice out of the darkness.

"Holy _shit _you scared me." I hissed, and Deidara moved out of the shadows at the other end of the garden and walked over.

"Sorry about that, yeah." He crouched down next to me. I was almost surprised that I hadn't realized he was there – in the darkness I felt super-aware of how close he was.

"What were you even doing out here?"

"Smoking."

"Oh. Okay. Smoking what?" I tried to subtly smell the air for clues.

He laughed, "Just normal cigarettes, yeah. Want one?" He offered me the packet but I shook my head.

"I don't smoke." I muttered.

He was still grinning when he asked, "What's up, hn?"

"None of your business. But did you know that Konan and Pein were messing around in one of the bedrooms?"

I realized as soon as I said it that it wasn't the most tactful way of putting it, but maybe that was for the best? Sugar coating things doesn't necessarily make them hurt less. Even so I was ready to apologize for being so blunt, but he didn't seem bothered.

"And?" He replied. I looked at him, confused.

"But... aren't you and Konan...?"

Deidara laughed again, "No. Why would you think that, yeah?"

"I thought you said at school that you were bringing your girlfriend." I frowned.

"No, that was _you_, remember? I just couldn't be bothered to contradict you, hn."

Well that made more sense. I pulled myself into a ball and rested my head on my knees, and the two of us sat in silence for a couple of moments. Then I heard Kiba inside, calling my name, and I stood up. I looked down at Deidara, still sat down and looking perfectly comfortable, and decided against saying anything.

I went in through the back door and Kiba came over, looking worried. "Ino, Temari just talked to me-" I nodded and grimaced and Kiba pulled me into a quick hug.

"I saw them in my room." I whispered, "Does she know that I like him?" I felt Kiba shake his head and I sighed in relief. I heard someone burst through the door to the kitchen and looked up to see Sakura, green eyes anxious.

"Ino, have you heard about-"

"Temari and Shikamaru? I walked in on them, yeah."

"Oh dear." That was Hinata, standing behind Sakura. They both came in to stand close to me and I shrugged.

"I've only known him a couple of weeks. It doesn't matter."

"Bullshit." Kiba muttered softly and I looked up enquiringly, "I'm not pissed at Temari, but don't you try lying to us. We know you too well for that. If it matters, say it matters."

The way he put him, Sakura and Hinata into a group made me smile, despite how shaky I was feeling.

"It matters." I admitted, and the three of them gathered in even closer as if to protect me from my own feelings. "It matters quite a lot, actually."

"Oh Ino." I wasn't sure if that came from Sakura or Hinata, but I turned around and hugged them both at once and felt Kiba join in, making it a group hug.

"Hang on," I pulled away from them, "Is Temari just in there telling everyone about it?"

"Well, not exactly." Kiba looked uncomfortable.

"They came into the room hand-in-hand." Sakura said quietly, "And Temari took Shikamaru over to the sofa and they sat down together."

"They might not be a couple," Hinata suggested, "Don't some people do that at parties and then..." she was blushing too much to carry on and I laughed.

"Yeah, some people. But Temari isn't like that." I closed my eyes and tilted my head back, "It was just a... breakdown in communications. I'm happy for her, she hasn't had a boyfriend since she had to break up with the guy she was seeing in Suna to move here... I just wish she could have found someone who I didn't already-"

The door to the kitchen opened with a bang and we all looked up. Sasuke was standing there, looking _very _pissed off.

"Sakura." He said, and his voice was glacial. Every line of his body was expressing serious anger, from the tight set of his jaw to his tensed arms and clenched fists. Sakura looked up, her eyes wide like a rabbit caught in the headlights of an oncoming car.

"Sorry Sasuke. I'll be right there." her voice was demure and her tone light, but just underneath the surface there was fear there. I looked at her in alarm, what was going on?

"No. Now." He stayed there, glaring at Sakura and waiting for her to move.

"Oh Kami, oh shit." She muttered, "I'm sorry Ino." And she flitted over to Sasuke, following him out as he stormed off.

I raised an eyebrow at Hinata and Kiba, "What was _that _about?"

Hinata looked troubled, Kiba just looked confused, but a harsh knock at the door interrupted us before we could start discussing ideas. "That might be one of the neighbors here to complain." I said over my shoulder to Kiba and Hinata as I walked down the hall, "I'll deal with it." I opened the door but the apology I had ready died in my mouth. It wasn't anyone from my road. It was Kin.

"Hey Ino." She said sweetly, "How was clothes shopping with your mum?"

Oh crap.

She pushed past me, followed by Dosu and Zaku who were looking through to the living room with interest.

"Nice of you to throw a party... and then not invite one of your best friends."

I felt exactly the same as Sakura had looked just moments ago. Trapped.

"Kin, I..." I cast around for something that would stop her from wanting revenge after this. There was nothing. Naruto came out of the living room door with a massive grin on his face.

"HEY Ino! Is this another one of your friends?" At least he had an excuse for yelling today – it was the only way to be heard over the music. I nodded mechanically.

"Ah, is this one of your new private school friends?" Kin asked sweetly, turning to Naruto. "Lovely to meet you," She offered her hand and Naruto shook it enthusiastically.

Although not so enthusiastically when she grabbed his hair with the other hand and tugged it, pulling his ear closer to her mouth.

"Asshole." She shoved Naruto away and I saw him stagger backwards, eyes wide with confusion, before shooting me an alarmed look walking quickly backwards into the living room and closing the door behind him.

Poor Naruto, probably furious but way too polite to pick a fight with a girl.

"Kin." I said firmly and she looked at me, unimpressed. "That's not cool."

"Oh, like you'd know about 'cool'." She sneered, moving toward me menacingly, "Where the hell do you get off? Organizing a little get together and trying to hide it from me?"

"I knew you wouldn't get along with my other friends." I honestly have no idea how I found the courage to say that – to say anything, really – to her face. "I didn't want the stress-"

I was cut off by a vicious slap to my left cheek. My hands reflexively came up to my face just a moment too late to protect myself and I looked at Kin in disbelief.

"Didn't want the stress? Prissy little cow!" She shoved me hard in the chest and I stumbled backwards. She pushed me again before I could regain my balance and I fell, whacking my head on the sharp corner of the bannister as I went down.

I cradled my head, groaning a little, and Kin kicked my shin. Tears sprung to my eyes with the pain.

"Kiba..." I tried feebly to call out and Kin laughed.

"I've got Dosu and Zaku making sure your little lapdog stays out of it. I'm here to teach you a lesson and I don't want him getting in the way."

As if it had been choreographed there was a crashing sound from the kitchen and I winced. Kiba was pretty strong, but probably wouldn't be able to get away from both of Kin's minions working together.

"You listen to me." Kin hissed, keeping her voice low enough that it wouldn't be heard over the music in the next room, "You're nothing without me. I made you who you are. Without me, you'll just fade back into obscurity."

Another crash, even louder, sounded from down the hall. Kin pulled me to my feet by the front of my dress, ripping the fabric, and slapped me again.

"Do you understand, bitch? You're _mine_." I looked at her, trying to find in me the courage to spit in her face or say something pithy and defiant. But my head was spinning still, and I was starting to feel a little sick.

"I said _do you understand? _Answer me!" Kin shook me and I whimpered, feeling my neck go all floppy. I could feel something warm and wet seeping through my hair, and I let out a sob.

There was clearly something big going on in the kitchen now. There was yelling happening, and lots of banging going on, and I took the opportunity of Kin being distracted to try and shout again. Suddenly the door flew open, and Kiba sprinted down the hallway and threw himself at Kin, tearing her off me.

I fell to the floor, my head slamming painfully against the stairs, and I watched as Kiba shook Kin, holding her by the shoulders.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU PLAYING AT?" He roared at her, as she gazed up at him, afraid and disbelieving. The noise brought people out of the living room at last, and Hinata ran up to me from the other end of the hallway.

"Ino I am so sorry," she whispered, stroking my hair, "I should have come out, but I was so scared... I was so... I'm sorry." I tried to tell her that it was fine, that I was alright, but she gasped and pulled her hands away without warning, trembling. "Oh Kami," she was saying under her breath over and over, "What happened? What happened to you?"

Kiba dropped Kin and came over immediately, "Oh crap. Ino, your head is bleeding."

I'd been wondering why I was feeling so dizzy.

I closed my eyes and tried to pull myself together, but once my eyes were shut I wanted to keep them that way, simply listening to the people talking around me.

"What are we supposed to do in this situation?" I think that was Hinata, right near me.

"Crap, crap, crap, I don't know. Call an ambulance? Call her mum? How deep is it?" Definitely Kiba.

"I don't know, I don't know if I can look at it." Poor Hinata, utterly unequipped to deal with the bad things. I guess that's the difficulty you face being as good as her.

"Let me see."

"That is... very scary to look at."

"Hell yes. Did Kin do that to her?"

"Guys! A little space please!"

I'd completely lost track of who was saying what at this point, simply enjoying the feeling of floating. My head didn't even hurt anymore, and although I was aware that this might not be a good thing I couldn't find it in me to be scared.

A more distinctive voice cut through the general chatter, "What the fuck happened here, yeah?"

"Kin happened. Thanks, by the way."

"Whatever, hn. PEIN! Bring your car round to the front, we need to drive her to the hospital, yeah. You lot quit faffing."

I felt cool hands on my face, and a female voice that I didn't recognize said "I suppose we ought to take over, being the eldest here."

"That's what I'm thinking, yeah. MOVE OUT OF THE WAY, KIDS."

Strong arms lifted me and Kiba's voice sounded next to my ear, "I'm coming with you."

"Fine, yeah. Just carry her out to the car. And try to keep her head still. Has anyone got a towel or something, hm?"

Things got very confusing then, and I think I might have been drifting in and out of consciousness a little because the pieces don't fit together properly.

There was the feeling of moving very fast and the vague impression of darkness outside.

There was the smell of disinfectant and the echoey sound of hospital corridors.

There was a warm hand holding mine gently as something smelly and sticky and cold was smeared over the back of my head.

There were people saying that I'd probably be fine, that it was a fairly shallow wound. And a comment about head wounds always bleeding a lot. And some light-hearted comment I didn't quite catch that earned a stiff and not altogether genuine laugh from the guys sitting next to me.

And then, finally, there was waking up to a dull ache in the back of my skull and a feeling of fuzziness when I tried to think too hard.

I looked around the room. It was still very dark outside but there were dim lights on in the room. I was on a hospital bed, next to several other beds. One in the far corner had a young boy lying on it, his mother – presumably – sitting next to him and holding his hand. Another bed across from me had the curtains drawn completely around it.

There was a chair on either side of my bed, and both were occupied. The one on my right by Kiba, who was asleep and snoring softly, and the one on my left by Deidara, who was asleep and not making any noise at all.

I frowned, remembering what had happened at the party, then let out a low groan. Mum would be worried, and once she was done being worried she'd be furious, and once she was done being furious she'd probably never let me hold a party ever again.

I looked down, I was still in my party outfit so obviously I hadn't needed any dramatic surgery or anything. That was a relief, presumably it also meant that I didn't have brain damage. Sitting up a little, I scanned the room for a clock. No luck. I sank back on the pillows with a soft sigh, how long until someone would come and tell me what was going on? I sighed again, a little louder, just for something to do. Apparently I was a little too loud though, because there was a stirring from the chair on my left.

I looked over as Deidara stretched out his legs, then his arms, then opened his eyes slowly, scanning the room before making eye contact with me.

"You okay, hm?" He asked quietly.

"Uh... I think so. What's the time? Sorry if I woke you up."

He shrugged, "It's fine. I've always been a light sleeper, yeah. I'll go find a clock." He stood up and left, loping off down the hallway outside, and I lay back and watched the ceiling.

"Ino? Are you awake?" I looked over to my right, where Kiba was sitting up and rubbing his eyes.

"I'm sorry, did I wake you up too?"

"I don't think so. These chairs are just really uncomfortable." Kiba grinned shakily at me. "How are you feeling?"

"Fuzzy." I said, scrunching up my face, "And the back of my head is beginning to really cane."

"Maybe we can get you some more painkillers." A hint of bitterness entered his voice, "I'm sorry I didn't get to you sooner. If I'd been faster I could have stopped you from getting hurt."

"Probably not." I said lightly, "The head thing happened right near the start. And you were pretty damn quick anyway, considering you had to get past both Dosu and Zaku."

Kiba shook his head, "I had help with that. Your blonde friend came in through the back door and wiped the floor with them."

"Oh. Well, we do a lot of martial arts at Konoha High. Nice of him to help out though." Kiba laughed and nodded, then looked as if he might be about to cry. "Oh no, Kiba don't be sad. Please don't, I'm fine. It barely even hurts." He snorted at that, but his eyes stopped looking quite so shiny and he relaxed a little.

Deidara came back through the door at that point, announcing that it was three thirty in the morning as he folded himself back into the chair.

"Jeeeez," I whistled, "and you guys are still here?"

They laughed together, "Like I'd leave you." Kiba pointed out, and I smiled.

"What's your excuse, pretty boy?"

Deidara raised an eyebrow at me, "Pein had to leave, hn, so I don't have a ride home. Bimbo."

"Hey," I protested weakly, "I'm pretty sure you're not allowed to be rude to me when I'm in hospital."

"If you're well enough to insult me then you're well enough to be insulted back." He responded smugly.

"Oh whatever. Kiba, does my mum know what happened?"

Kiba nodded, "I called her while they glued your head back together. She's worried out of her mind, but I told her I'd let her know when you woke up and she'll bring you clothes and stuff in the morning when she comes to take you home."

"Okay, two things. One: They _glued _my head? And two: Does this mean I get to go home today?"

"Yes and yes. Apparently glue is better than stitches for head injuries. Not sure why. And there's not really any reason for you to be here to heal, the only reason you're in overnight is because we couldn't see any easy way of getting you home. The nurses didn't want Deidara and I to stick around, but we just sat down and ignored them."

I was strangely touched at that, "Thanks for disregarding hospital procedure for me guys."

That got another laugh out of them.

"Any time," Kiba said generously, "Although I'd rather you didn't make a habit out of getting your head cracked open by bitches like Kin. That was a little scary."

"Do you know what happened at the house after we left?"

"Konan stayed to make sure everyone left without causing havoc, hn."

"That's nice of her." I was starting to drift off again, "For some reason I'm feeling really, really tired."

"That'll probably be the painkillers in your system. Plus you lost a reasonable amount of blood, that might have something to do with it too." Kiba supplied.

"Okay. Do you think I can go to sleep for a while?"

"Course you can, yeah." Deidara's voice was surprisingly gentle.

"Night guys..." I mumbled as I closed my eyes.

/\/\/\/\

The next time I woke up it was light outside, at last, and people were bustling about outside the ward. I stretched, and Kiba looked up from the cereal he was eating.

"Morning sleepy-head. Feeling any better?"

I did a mental run-through of my various aches and pains, "No, worse actually. Pain-wise. But my head feels a lot clearer, which is nice. Hey, when's mum coming? I guess I don't have to go to school today."

"I'll call your mum in a moment and tell her you're up and ready to go."

I sat up and stretched a little, reaching a hand round to feel the back of my head. It was kind of gross. My hair was matted with glue and some blood, although it seemed some of it had been washed out, and I could feel the wound on my head. I ran my fingers over it as lightly as I could, not sure whether touching it would mess anything up.

Kiba finished his cereal and stood up.

"I'm gonna go find a payphone and call your mum. I'll be right back."

I nodded and he left, Deidara passing him as he came back in.

"Hey pretty boy, I didn't realize you'd left."

"Oh, that's nice, hn." He flopped down into the chair and offered me a finger of Kit-Kat.

"No thanks. And by the way, you stink. Of cigarettes. Gross."

He just sighed and shifted his chair a little further away, still eating the chocolate. There was a brief silence.

"I've changed my mind." I decided, "I want chocolate."

"Fine, hn." He chucked me half of the bar with a long-suffering sigh.

"Thanks." I said cheerfully.

"The back of your head looks disgusting, yeah." Deidara offered by way of conversation.

I scowled at him, "Well thank you very much." I sighed mournfully, "I'm probably not even allowed to wash it because of this horrid glue. I'm not going to school like this. No way." I looked around the room for a moment, then realized "Hang on. You're skipping school."

Deidara didn't answer me, and I looked over to see that he was messing with a ball of what looked like putty. It was about the size of a tennis ball, maybe a little bigger, and he was molding it with intense concentration.

"Watcha doing?" I asked, and he just grunted. "Eloquent." I quipped, hypnotized by the confidence he was working the clay with. Slowly it started to take shape, a head and shoulders, a face, hair. He went through, refining the details of the face; the shape of the eyes, the length of the nose, the line of the mouth. I frowned as I recognized myself.

He did the hair next, using his fingernails to show the directions of different strands, pulling the shape about to express the matted clump at the back of my head. I unconsciously reached up with my hand to feel my own hair, tracing with my fingertips the same sections he was defining with his.

I couldn't tell you how long it took, but when he was finished he sat back with a satisfied expression, holding the small figure up for me to see.

"That's actually really good." I said sincerely and he grinned, looking like like a seven year old boy for a moment.

"It's art, yeah." He balanced it on one palm and squashed it flat with the other.

I was still looking at the flattened sculpture, lying on the mouth tattoo on his palm, when Kiba came back followed by my mum.

"Ino," she came over with a hand over her mouth.

"Hey mum," I smiled at her, "I'm really sorry about all of this."

"Don't be silly." She replied, reaching out to stroke my hair. "How are you feeling?"

"Not too bad." I lied, "You?"

She ignored the question, "I brought you some new clothes, although I'm not sure where you can change, then we just need to ask the nurse or doctor some questions and we can go." She turned to Kiba and Deidara who were standing together on the opposite side of the bed, "I can give you two a lift back to your houses if you like?"

Deidara looked surprised but Kiba nodded smoothly, "That'd be great, thanks Ms Yamanaka."

"Okay then. I'll go fetch a nurse." She left the clothes on the end of my bed and walked off.

"Am I supposed to be changing?" I asked, confused.

Kiba grinned, "Tell you what, we'll close the curtains and stand guard outside so you can get dressed in peace."

I shrugged, "I'll give it a go."

The guys left the area around the bed, tugging the curtains shut behind them. It didn't feel anything close to private so I changed as quickly as I could, pulling the jeans on and tugging the T-shirt gingerly over my head. It was one of my long T-shirts, coming down to about mid-thigh. Mum had forgotten to bring socks so I just put the trainers on over bare feet.

"I'm done," I said, feeling self conscious. The curtain opened again and Kiba came and sat down on the end of the bed while Deidara stood around looking bored.

Mum arrived back a minute later looking pleased with herself.

"You can shower, so long as you don't get the wound too wet, but you can't wash your hair for five days. And dry the glued area gently. You can remember that, right?"

"Yeah, I think I can handle that."

"Great! Let's go then."

I think it's a great testament to my mother's sympathetic nature that she waited all the way until the car park to start grilling me about what happened.


	22. Chapter 22

_**Chapter 23 has arrived! It's a short one, so I'll upload the next one pretty soon, but I thought it was important to the chapter (hark at me and my **_**_artistic-ness XD) that it ended where it did. Does. Whatever. Moving on! _**_**Hugs and cookies and Ino-plushies to my lovely reviewers, demon lilith, Aiko of the Akatsuki, Devil'sLittleBabyGirl and Miss Hydrangea. Thank you all for reading, reviewing and continuing to review!**_

_**Disclaimer:**_

_**I don't own Naruto, or Lullaby for a Stormy Night (by Vienna Teng)  
**_

**Study In Contrasts  
**

While we were in the car I talked mum vaguely through what had happened, trying to make it sound like a truly horrific attack, for the pity, while also downplaying it, to avoid unnecessary freaking-out on the parental front. Unsurprisingly it wasn't that successful as an experiment, but I think mum just put it down to the painkillers in my system.

Deidara got mum to drop him off at the bus stop, saying his house was pretty out of the way, and Kiba came back with me to hang out for a little while.

We sat up in my room in silence for a moment.

"So." Kiba said eventually, "Shall we assume that you're no longer in Kin's gang?"

I laughed, "Um, yes. I think that was her kicking me out."

"I get the impression I'm not welcome anymore either."

"No. Perhaps not. Is that okay with you?"

"More than okay!" Kiba leaned his head back against the wall with a wide smile, "I've been trying to get you to get out of that for ages."

I blinked at him, confused. "What do you mean?"

"Kin was a terrible influence on you." He said bluntly, still looking at the ceiling. "Dosu and Zaku were just monkeys, but Kin was a real nasty piece of work. Poisonous, y'know? I didn't want you near her. But it was what you wanted, maybe even what you needed for a while. I'm glad it's over though."

"Well... you sure kept that to yourself well."

Kiba shrugged, still looking at the ceiling. "Anyway, that's done now. It remains to be seen whether Ten Ten and Temari will have anything to say about the whole thing."

"Temari..."

"Oh yeah," Kiba looked at me, "How are you feeling about her and Shikamaru?"

I sighed, "Honestly? Gutted. I know I didn't like him all that long, but still. I think it's partly that I'd wanted to create a new life for myself there. I'd made the friends there, started to sort out my grades. Having a crush on Shikamaru was like completing the set."

"How much did you actually like him?"

"Oh, a lot. Just because it was partially motivated by just wanting a boyfriend doesn't mean I liked him any less. He's so different to anyone else I know... Plus his hair is amazing."

Kiba snorted and I let out a short giggle.

"I'll get over him soon enough, I'm sure." I said, stretching my arms up in the air. "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, and I've been through worse. I think maybe the worst thing about it is that I never got the chance to find out whether he liked me. Maybe if I'd just come out and said something we would have been a couple already. Or if I'd told Temari about who I liked, then she wouldn't have gone for him. Basically, the annoying thing about this situation is that I have nobody to blame but myself."

Kiba put an arm around me and I leaned into him, just enjoying being close to someone.

"You don't need to be mature about it you know." Kiba said, "If it hurts, you can just be a brat about it. I'll understand."

"I know."

We stayed sitting like that for a long time, matching the patterns of our breathing. I think I might actually have fallen asleep leaning on Kiba because one moment it was still a little light outside, and the next moment the room was completely dark, stars visible through the window. I sat up, rubbing my eyes.

"That happened quickly." I mumbled, and Kiba chuckled.

"Your mum said to go down when we got hungry. She's put some stuff out for us to pick through."

I nodded and stood up, Kiba following. I swayed suddenly, grabbing onto Kiba for support.

"Whoa," he held my arms to steady me, "You alright?"

"Ow..." I whimpered, and Kiba frowned in sympathy.

"I'll go fetch you some painkillers. Wait right there." I did as he said and he left, returning after a couple of moments with two tablets. "We can go downstairs for a glass of water or you can take them here, dry."

I swallowed the pills without answering and offered Kiba a cheesy grin and thumbs up. "Good to go!"

There were all sorts of fun things laid out on the table downstairs; party rings, pineapple slices, crisps, tangerines, grapes, marinated anchovies (a personal favourite since I was seven, and I was touched that mum had bothered to go out and buy them), olives and iced buns. And a note from mum letting us know that there was chocolate ice cream in the freezer.

"She had to go out for a quick meeting or something." Kiba explained through a mouthful of crisps, and I held out a hand to defend myself from the crisp-shard-shower.

"Spray it again? You've got crumbs all over the table, idiot." I teased, and he grinned wolfishly.

"I see someone's gotten their energy back!"

"Or maybe your table manners are just _so _bad-" Kiba decided to interrupt by throwing a grape at me. "Oh that's nice. That's very nice." I shook my head with mock severity, "I bet your parents are just so proud of you!"

Kiba laughed it off, opting to cram three party rings in his mouth at once rather than reply.

"Yun-shnowf-hwoz-mntshteg?"

"I'm sorry," I said prissily, "I don't speak party-ring. Could you translate into English?"

After an intense period of chewing Kiba managed to swallow his mouthful and try again.

"You know who's interesting?"

"No!" I said enthusiastically, "Tell me who's interesting!"

"Deidara."

I picked up a tangerine and started peeling it, waiting for Kiba to elaborate.

He didn't.

"In what _way _is he interesting?"

Kiba took a breath and launched into his story with, in my opinion, way more enthusiasm than required.

"Well, when I was in here and Dosu and Zaku came in they just grabbed me, one on each arm. I kicked Dosu, trying to get him off me, but he just grabbed a handful of paper towels and shoved them in my mouth. It wasn't enormously successful as a gag, but I did almost choke on it which gave Zaku a chance to shove me to the floor. Anyway, there was a bit of a struggle and next thing I know the back door's open and Deidara's standing there looking confused."

Kiba stopped for a moment, closing his eyes and trying to remember. "Dosu was trying to hold my legs down, Zaku was trying to get a grip on my arms. Deidara said something like, 'need a hand?' and I just looked at him like, are you kidding me? So he just launched himself in, grabbed Dosu by the shoulders and yanked him off. Dosu swung round to try and thump him, but Deidara got him in the stomach with some kind of roundhouse kick. Dosu stumbled hard and accidentally knocked the chopping board off the counter, it made the loudest crash-"

Kiba could see that I was starting to zone out so he cleared his throat and skipped a bit.

"Anyway, this went on for about a minute, then Zaku got absolutely nailed by a kick to the... uh... sensitive area, and he yelled, and that set us all of shouting – I dunno, something about the adrenaline I guess – and then I heard you call out, even through the noise, and I froze, and Deidara did too. We both looked over at the door and I swear it was like we were mentally linked. Just as I made a break for the door Deidara instantly lunged and grabbed Dosu's arm so he couldn't go after me. It was just pretty interesting."

"Yeah," I said sarcastically, "I've always found fights totally gripping. What exactly was it about that that so interested you?"

"Well, I'm not sure. Partly the fact that he even heard you above the noise-"

"Maybe he didn't." I pointed out, "Maybe he just saw you react."

"And _partly_," Kiba continued, ignoring me, "the fact that he got the timing so exactly right on grabbing Dosu."

"I think you're giving him way too much credit."

"What's up with you?" Kiba asked, peering at me across the table, "I thought you liked him?" I shot Kiba a baffled look and he corrected himself, "I didn't mean that I thought you had a crush on him. Just liked him as a friend. Got along with him."

I shrugged one shoulder, picking at an iced bun. "Yeah, sometimes I do. But him and his gang terrorize a couple of my friends. Deidara can be a laugh, but he's a bully."

"... he seems plenty nice to you."

I treated Kiba to one of my most terrifying glares but he simply stared back defiantly.

"It's true." He muttered rebelliously, "Maybe you feel bad about getting along with him because he's an ass to your friends, but that doesn't necessarily stop you from liking him. And besides, you didn't seem too bothered by him being a bully when I came into the ward with your mum. You were mesmerized."

"He's a fantastic artist." I explained irritably, "He'd just done a really interesting little sculpture. That's what I was 'mesmerized' by."

"See!" Kiba crowed, "Interesting! Told you. I win."

"Whaaat?" I laughed despite myself, "No way. I said the sculpture was interesting, it's not the same!"

Kiba got up and did some kind of hybrid victory/tribal dance around the table, "I won, I won, I won won won, who won? I won! Who won? ME!"

"Idiot." I said affectionately, kicking out at him as he danced past.

Kiba sat back down at the table and grabbed a handful of grapes, trying to chuck them in the air and catch them in his mouth. "What time is it by the way?"

I looked up at the clock, "Half past nine. Have you got to get back?"

Kiba nodded, "By ten preferably. So I guess I'd better head off in fifteen minutes or so."

The kitchen lights seemed unusually bright, for some reason they were giving me a headache. "I think I'll just go to bed when you leave. Did mum say when she'd be back?"

"About eleven I think. Are you feeling okay?"

Not really. My head's hurting despite the painkillers, I can really feel the bruises on my legs and back from Kin's assault yesterday and I'm exhausted.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just a little sleepy."

But we've been friends for too long for Kiba to buy an obvious lie like that.

"Sure. Look, I'm going to go upstairs – does your mum still keep those two old hot water bottles in the airing cupboard?"

"As far as I'm aware, yes."

"Good, I'll fill those up and stick them in your bedroom. I'll be right back."

True to his word Kiba only took a minute to arrive back with the hot water bottles. I laid my head down on the table while he filled them and took them back up to my room. When he got back again I was close to falling asleep.

"Ino?" I looked up blearily, "I've got your phone here, it's been going crazy."

I had a look and found seven text messages and fifteen missed calls. It looks like somebody's pretty popular since getting her head cracked open! I put the phone aside for the moment – I didn't feel up to dealing with people just yet – and Kiba and I spent the next ten minutes playing I-spy.

"I spy with my little eye... something beginning with C." Kiba said, twisting a fork between his hands absent-mindedly.

"Clock?" A shake of the head. "Colander?"

"Is that even visible?"

"Maybe not. Crisps?"

"Yeah."

I grabbed a handful and scanned the room.

"That was rubbish. I spy with my little eye, something... beginning with... O."

"Um... olives?"

"No way. I said crisps was pathetic, you think I'd follow that with 'olives'?"

"Alright, alright!" Kiba rolled his eyes playfully, "Hmmmm. What about... objects?"

"Seriously?" he looked at me hopefully, "No. Try again."

Kiba glanced halfheartedly around the room and shrugged. "I give up."

"Orion. I can see it through the window. I go again." He looked sheepish and I peered up at the clock. "Oh. You have to go."

"Sorry Ino."

"It's okay," I smiled at him, "I'll just go and get some sleep, hopefully I'll feel better in the morning."

"Fingers crossed." Kiba gave me a quick hug and left, waving over his shoulder as he vanished into the darkness.

The house suddenly felt very empty with Kiba's cheerful presence gone. I cleared up the food in the kitchen quickly, scurrying upstairs and changing into a loose black T-shirt and some plain navy boy shorts. I burrowed under my duvet, automatically made toasty warm by the hot water bottles Kiba had left there.

I looked up to turn my lamp off and saw that Kiba had also left the painkillers on my bedside table, within easy reach.

When in my life have I ever done something good enough to deserve having him for a friend?

I went downstairs and grabbed my mobile, sending off a speedy text:

"Kiba, thanks thanks thanks =]

massive hugs

-Ino"

Before running back up and diving under the covers.

I slipped in and out of sleep for a while, thinking thoughts that were almost vivid enough to be called dreams. I completely lost track of time, revisiting the memories of my party.

Until the whole thing with Kin it had been fairly successful.

Except there was that thing with Sasuke and Sakura. What had been going on with that? I suddenly felt an inexplicable surge of worry for my friend. As if something bad was happening to her, or about to happen.

And there was that thing with Temari and Shikamaru. I buried my head in my pillow, snuffling pathetically.

And then the icing on the cake, Kin's dramatic entrance. I suddenly remembered that Kiba would see her at school tomorrow and added him to my list of people-to-worry-about. It was all a bit too much for me to cope with, as tired as I was, and I started crying.

Everything on top of everything else, all the little things and the bigger things mounting up together suddenly seemed like a mountain looming overhead. And I was standing at the foot of it, tired and incompetent and aching all over, inside and out.

I sobbed noisily, letting myself completely give up control over my emotions.

Then there was a timid knock at the door and mum came in, looking frail and anxious in her pyjamas.

"Ino? Are you alright honey?"

I shook my head miserably and she came over to sit on the bed next to me. There was a moment where neither of us knew what to do next, and then a voice in my head reminded me, _Let go_. And I let myself fall onto my mother and throw my arms around her, for the first time in more than five years.

Mum's breath caught, and then her arms were around me too and she was crying into my hair like I was crying into her shoulder and I was thinking how much I'd missed this.

"Mama..." I said, "I don't know what I'm doing. Just when things are going well something happens to make me realize that I have _no idea what I'm doing_."

"Shhh, it's okay, I know honey, I know. It's okay."

"I hurt." I mumbled, and mum stroked my back with one hand, rubbing in circles like she used to when I was very small and couldn't get to sleep.

"Shh-shh-shh."

"Mum?"

"Yes?"

"I love you."

"I know you do Ino. I love you too."

Slowly mum laid me back down, stroking my hair and softly singing a lullaby that I recognized from years ago.

_Little child, be not afraid_

_though rain pounds harsh against the glass_

_like an unwanted stranger_

_there is no danger_

_I am here tonight_

_Little child, be not afraid_

_though storm clouds mask your beloved moon_

_and its candlelight beams_

_still keep pleasant dreams_

_I am here tonight_

_And someday you'll know_

_that nature is so_

_the same rain that draws you near me_

_falls on rivers and land_

_on forests and sand_

_makes the beautiful world that you see_

_in the morning_


	23. Chapter 23

_**Another upload! My oh my. It's only fair though, since the last one was shorter than usual, that you guys get the next chapter a little earlier. Thank you to my super-special-awesome regular reviewers! demon lilith**_**_, Devil'sLittleBabyGirl, Aiko of the Akatsuki and Miss Hydrangea. This probably goes without saying by now but thank you so much for taking the time to comment after every chapter! I heart you all XD_**

**_Disclaimer:_**

**_All I own here is the plot ^_^_**

**Study In Contrasts  
**

I slept through most of Friday, only really getting up to forage for food. Mum had to go out to work, but I got regular texts from Kiba to keep me company. I had a look through all the missed messages from the other day;

"Hey honey, have a great time tonight!" From mum, near the start of the party. Oh the irony.

"Ino, I really hope you're okay. I'm so sorry I couldn't be more help. Please tell me soon how you're feeling." From Hinata.

"Oh Kami, Ino I heard what happened. I wish I'd been there to help out. We're gonna get that bitch for hurting you. Let me know when I can come round and see you." From Sakura

"Bet your hair still looks gross." From Deidara. Apparently that weird thing of adding 'hn' or 'yeah' to the end of sentences didn't translate to texts.

"SAKURA GAVE ME YOUR NUMBER I HOPE YOU'RE OKAY BECAUSE THERE WAS A LOT OF BLOOD AND IT LOOKED REALLY PAINFUL BUT I HOPE IT WASN'T. BELIEVE IT! And by the way this is Naruto. SAVE MY NUMBER! TEXT ME!" Just reading it gave me a headache.

"I'm never talking to Kin again after that. I can't believe she went so psycho on you – way out of order. Please be okay?" From Ten Ten, and finally,

"Theres more where that came from if u eva cross my path agen. Beta watch ur step princess." From Kin, of course.

I didn't delete the message, I was aware that it might come in handy for evidence someday, but I did turn my phone off and go back to bed after reading that.

Mum got back at about four and came straight upstairs to see how I was feeling.

"Have you been taking many painkillers?"

I shook my head, "I've been asleep, so I didn't really need them."

"That's good. I'm sure they can't be good for you." I smiled at that, mum had a bit of a thing about anything that she didn't consider natural. She wouldn't actually bother to avoid anything in this category, but she would worry about it out loud near constantly.

"Ino, what do you want to do about seeing your dad tomorrow?"

Huh. I'd completely forgotten about that.

"What are my options?"

Mum pursed her lips thoughtfully, "Well you could just meet him. Or we could postpone. Or he could come here and I could go out for a couple of hours to give you some time."

I leaned back to consider. The first idea was a no-no; if today was anything to go by I wouldn't have nearly enough energy to meet him out. I wasn't keen on option two either. This was my chance to start getting some answers, I didn't want something small like a split head to get in the way of that and force me to wait even longer.

Which would leave three.

"Would you mind leaving us in the house for a while?"

"I'd rather he didn't go looking around the place," she said honestly, "but I don't have a problem with you guys talking in one room."

"In that case..."

"I'll call him and let him know." Mum smiled at me and I smiled back. Just as she was about to leave she turned back. "I've missed you, Ino."

She left the room then, not waiting for a response.

/\/\/\/\

Saturday morning arrived, bringing with it the worst weather we'd seen in weeks. Rain pounded the windows, thunder roaring its frustrations to the sky and lightning responding with fiery displays across the clouds.

Attention seekers.

I watched the rain bounce off the roof of next door's extension until I got bored, then called Sakura.

"Hey?"

"Hi Sakura, Ino here."

"Ino... seriously? Are you okay?"

"Yes, seriously. And I'm holding up alright, yeah. Look, can you come round after dinner?"

"Definitely. Wait, are you still seeing your dad today?"

"That's the plan. He's supposed to be here in about half an hour, mum just left to give us some privacy."

"Wow..." Sakura breathed, "How do you feel?"

"Really nervous actually. I genuinely have no idea what to expect today. What I think I'm going to do is just listen to everything he says and save all the analysis for later, when I can get your take on it too."

"Okay, I can help with that. Kami, Ino this is so exciting! Scary, but I mean, you're finally going to get some answers!"

"I really hope so." There was a knock at the door and I looked up in surprise. "Hang on Sak, there's someone here."

I padded downstairs and opened the front door, still holding the phone. It was dad.

"Uh... you're early." Wow. You can see that I was feeling observant.

"Yep! I couldn't wait to see you." He did sound pleased. Excited, even.

"Is that your dad?" Sakura asked, and I nodded dumbly, forgetting for a moment that she couldn't see me.

"Come in, I guess." I said to dad, then "Yeah it is. I'll call you back." and I hung up the phone.

I stared at dad as he ambled through to the kitchen. He was wearing a red and green jacket over a plain black top and black jeans. And trainers, which was a little alarming. He seemed completely at ease in this house, despite not having lived here for six years or so.

"Hi dad." the word felt weird in my mouth. Unused.

"Ino." He looked me over and smiled. "You're looking so grown up."

"Yeah, that can happen over time."

"Your mother told me about your injury." A cloud passed over his face, "You shouldn't have been left unsupervised."

I frowned, "I persuaded mum to let us have the house to ourselves. And besides, it was going fine until Kin showed up. That was just... an anomaly."

"Oh yeah? I'm sure she'd like you to think it was your fault."

Assuming he was talking about mum and not Kin that seemed like a pretty unfair comment. But I'd promised myself I'd save the judgments for later, so I put it aside for the moment.

"Dad, I want some answers."

"Fine. I can help with that."

We sat down at the kitchen table and I tried to separate one question from the hundreds crowding my brain.

I decided to jump in with both feet: "Why did mum kick you out?"

As soon as I'd asked the question my mind went haywire. Had I gone to far? Too quickly? Would he answer the question or not? What would I do if it was something really awful? What would I do if it was barely anything at all? What if he lied? Would I be able to tell? And _why wasn't he saying anything yet??_

I looked at dad in confusion, he was looking at the table with a difficult to decipher expression on his face.

"I made a mistake." He said at last, "And your mother couldn't find it in her heart to forgive me."

Finally. Finally getting somewhere. It was almost painful, this feeling of relief.

"What did you do?"

"I don't... really want to go into details."

I gaped at him, "Not an option, dad! I've waited six years for an explanation, you think you're going to fob me off with something like that?" He grimaced but didn't start talking, so I decided to take matters into my own hands. "Did you cheat on mum?"

He looked up suddenly, eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"No, she didn't tell me. It was just the first thing that came into my head. Make of that what you will." I sighed, "Look, if you don't tell me then I'll just ask mum later-"

"Fine." He interrupted harshly. "Okay, if you want the details. Fine." His voice softened a little, "I suppose you are owed that much."

_That much and no more, I suppose._ I thought to myself.

"She was someone I worked with. A young girl," _of course_ "just starting out in the company. I was assigned to show her the ropes. We spent a lot of time together at work and she told me that... she was attracted to me." He paused and looked up at me. Looking for sympathy? I couldn't tell, but I made my expression impassive. Credit to him, he carried on bravely.

"I told her nothing could happen between us. I was married, I had a child. She accepted that, at first, although she still hinted every so often that if I wanted something to happen, it would. Your mum and I were going through a rough patch. We hadn't been, er, _intimate _in a while. She thought I was spending too much time at work. She was getting suspicious, and it made me angry because I hadn't done anything."

"So you went and did something. Or some_one_."

He winced, "In a manner of speaking. I regretted it right away and told Kiyomi that I couldn't see her anymore. She got angry. She started ringing me at home, sending me emails, even a letter to my home address. I told your mum what had happened and she went mental. One day apparently Kiyomi called while I was out and spoke to your mother. I don't know what was said in that conversation, but when I got home my stuff was packed up and I was told to leave and never come back."

"Okay. Next question: why didn't you contact me?"

"I did!" He replied fiercely, "I called the house all the time but your mother," he spat the word out furiously, "wouldn't let me speak to you. Wouldn't even pass on my messages."

"And then what did you do?"

"I went to sort myself out. I was a mess. I went to stay with friends a ways away so that I could get myself together again. I had to put my past aside completely to find myself."

He looked at me as if hoping for sympathy, but I was staying firm. No responses, positive or negative, if I could help it.

Even if he did sound ridiculous. 'Find himself'... are you kidding me?

"I was stupid." He admitted, "But I was confused and angry. I didn't want anything to do with your mother, and she made it clear that to get to you I'd have to go through her. I just... wasn't emotionally capable of doing that."

"Six years." I reminded him, "You didn't contact me for _six years_. Why now?"

"I always remembered you on your birthday. When you turned 16 this year it just sort of... hit home. I should know my daughter. This is my last chance before you go off and leave home," he shrugged.

"Tell me about what you've been doing. Since you left."

And for the next hour that's what he did. I heard about how he moved in with a friend and spent about a month sitting indoors and eating and hating himself. How that friend kicked him out and he had to find another, get a job and get into therapy. He told me about working his way slowly up a small advertising agency, managing after four years to make such an impression that he was finally promoted to assistant director.

He told me about various rebound relationships, and then a deeper relationship with a woman called Akemi, who turned him down when he asked her to marry him.

In return I told him about not talking to mum, not so much falling in as pushing myself in with the wrong crowd and the heartache that went with that. I told him all about Kin, but I didn't tell him about Kiba. Just like when I talked about mum forcing me to move schools I left out all but the basic details about my new friends at Konoha High.

When mum arrived back she found the two of us sitting at the kitchen table, not having moved since sitting down to begin the conversation.

"Inoichi," she said with a polite nod, and he nodded stiffly in return.

"I'm going to leave now." he said, standing up, "But I want to see you again." I nodded, but didn't say anything. And when he went to hug me I shook my head.

"What's wrong? You used to be such an affectionate little thing."

I narrowed my eyes at him, not liking his tone of voice. "You have to earn that, dad."

He left without another word.

/\/\/\/\

I called Sakura as soon as dad was gone and arranged for her to come round at seven, once we'd both finished eating. She arrived right on time and the two of us went straight upstairs.

Sitting cross-legged on the bed, Sakura looked at me expectantly.

"Alright," I said, "I'm going to summarize the information I got. Basically, he cheated, mum kicked him out, he ran off to find himself, he came back because I turned sixteen."

Sakura whistled through her teeth, "Jeez, where to begin?"

"Actually, before we go on to that can I ask you about Wednesday?"

An uncomfortable expression passed across Sakura's face, but she nodded nonetheless.

"What was with Sasuke?"

"Uh... he's very protective." She fiddled with the end of her sleeve, "He likes to know where I am when we're out somewhere." She laughed lightly, "It's quite sweet really."

I snorted, "Yeah sure. That's why you looked terrified when he came into the kitchen."

Sakura's eyes flashed, "Terrified? Whatever." she said dismissively. There was an awkward moment where we both wondered if we were supposed to be apologizing for something, then I moved on.

"Okay. You know best." I offered uncertainly, and she nodded, calming down.

"Now let's talk about your dad."

I sighed, "I have no idea how much of what he said was true and how much was just the way he wanted me to think of him."

"That could be a problem. Can you sort of compare his story to your mum's and see if they match up?"

"Mum hasn't given me a story to work with yet," I reminded her, "And besides, she could just as easily be biased by her own feelings as he could be biased by embarrassment."

"True." Sakura sighed, flopping backwards on the bed. "Talk me through what he said to you."

So I did, relaying everything I remembered of my father's little life story. Sakura took it all in, nodding at regular intervals and doing an excellent job of staying basically neutral.

"Sounds like he went through a midlife crisis." Sakura commented when I'd finished, and I nodded.

"Are midlife crises common in your early thirties?"

Sakura shrugged a little, "I'm not really sure. I don't have a lot of experience in that department! Do you think he gets bonus points for showing an interest now, or points taken off for taking six years to get round to it?"

"Both." I replied decisively, "Definitely both."

"Leaving him with a blank canvas of 0 points. I wonder whether you'll ever know the whole truth?"

"Ah, Sakura, what is truth really?"

Sakura groaned and rolled onto her stomach, "Please don't get all philosophical with me! I can't handle it." I laughed. Sakura looked up and over to where I was sitting against the wall, "Do you think it's weird that he asked someone else to marry him? You could have had a step-mum now."

"Dunno to be honest. I mean, he didn't seem to want to go into too much detail about the whole thing. Since it didn't actually end up happening I don't feel too weird about it."

"Did you get along with him alright?"

"Yes and no." I ran my mind briefly over the conversation, "I still felt that he expected me to not really have changed. In six years, that's a bit of an ask. And I hated the way he talked about mum."

Sakura grinned at me, "Y'know, it's kind of amazing how quick the turnaround has been on that. It was only weeks ago that you hated her."

"Au contraire my friend, it was only a few weeks ago that I _thought _I hated her."

"Okay, but seriously – how much difference does that actually make?"

"None, on the surface." I admitted, "But if I'd actually hated her then it would have taken a lot longer to get to this point. I was very, very angry with her, and I was spending a lot of time around angry people. I think that was a big part of why I never got over that anger. Then I was with you guys, and I sort of realized that if I wanted answers I'd be better off working with her than against her. And then, when I actually started speaking to her again and trying to build up some trust, I realized that I didn't hate her at all. I'd just been mad at her."

"And after six years, you finally let it go." Sakura smiled, rolling over again to lie on her back.

"Yep. What can I say? I'm so emotionally advanced it's untrue."

Sakura snorted, "Untrue is right."

"Y'know, nobody loves a smart ass."

"You said before that you used to feel closer to your dad. I'm assuming that's not true anymore?"

"Well, I don't feel closer to him anymore. But I still think I understand him better than I do mum. We're almost exactly alike."

"In what ways?"

"We're both very sociable, we both have problems sticking to the rules on occasion, we're short tempered and we both hold a grudge. We both hate being ordered around. We both hate being alone. We can both have trouble listening to other people." I sighed, "We're both selfish, we're both lazy, we're both insensitive, have trouble with committing to responsibility, childish-"

"Oh shut up." Sakura sounded fed up and I looked up, a little hurt.

"What's with you?"

"Who put that crap in your head?"

"Sorry, what?"

Sakura sat up, looking angry. "I'm serious, only about three of those things were true about you. I don't know your dad, I don't know how much of that applies to him, but a lot of that is complete rubbish if you're talking about yourself."

"Oh right?" I was feeling weirdly defensive about it, considering the fact that she was technically complimenting me.

"You _are _a child technically, and you're still more mature than a lot of the girls our age I know. You've committed to rebuilding your relationship with your mum – and you're having amazing success. The other day when you got stuck with your work you called me up for help rather than giving up. That's not lazy. And why don't we call up Hinata and see what she has to say about you being lazy or selfish or having trouble listening?"

We glared at each other for a moment before both looking away. I felt a smile creep across my face.

"Seriously?"

"Seriously." Sakura grinned at me, "100% seriously. I don't know what else you've been told about your dad but from what I can see, you're really not all that like him. Except that you both make friends easily and can be a bit rebellious."

"Huh." I looked out of my window, then back at Sakura as she stood up.

"I have to go, I think. It's half past eight now and mum wanted me back about ten minutes ago."

"Oh," I stood up too, "Sorry about that."

"It's fine." Sakura looked me in the eyes, "Look, I think you need to get your mum's side of the story. Then you can compare and start to find the sections that you can be pretty sure are true." I smiled at that and she laughed, "Whatever 'true' means." She gave me a quick hug and headed out.

/\/\/\/\

I cornered mum after lunch the next day to take Sakura's advice.

Standing by the toaster and facing the sink, where mum was washing up the plates, I just came out with it.

"Mum," I said, "I want your side of the story."

She put aside the plate she'd been drying and turned around. "I can do that. You want to talk now?" I nodded. "Okay, let's go through to the living room."

We sat down on the sofa and I crossed my legs and sat facing her. She took a deep breath before beginning.

"Your dad and I had been going through a rough patch. We'd had a lot of arguments recently, one big issue was about your school actually. I didn't want to keep you on at private school, I thought we were spending money we didn't have and besides, it might be good for you to branch out a little. You'd always been a friendly girl, I knew you'd be fine there." She smiled wryly, presumably remembering what had happened when I'd made friends at the local state school. "Anyway, your dad said he wasn't having it. He didn't want you in among those 'ruffians', said if we could afford it then we owed it to you."

She sighed, "That was only one of the things we argued about, but the point is: we argued. He started coming back from work later and later. He never wanted to spend time with me, he was never affectionate any more. It was like his time at home became a necessary evil – except when he was with you. He loved you so much. He just didn't seem to have any kind of interest in me anymore. Obviously I assumed he was cheating – what else would you think, given those signals? But he adamantly denied it every time. I started to believe him, started to think I was imagining things, but then the phone calls started.

"There would be at least one a day, either just after he got home or around dinner time. Your dad would always get to them first, wouldn't let me pick up. I felt almost certain then. One day I got to the phone before he did and picked up. There was... a girl on the other end. She sounded young. She told me her name was Kiyomi and I recognized the name from something Inoichi had said about four months ago about a new girl at work. I felt sick.

"I hung up and turned to your father, who was standing behind me pale as a ghost, and demanded that he tell me what had happened. Said that if he didn't I'd call that girl back and see what she had to say. He told me that it had started about a month after he'd met her, started with fairly innocent drinking trips after work, but had progressed quickly to meetings at her house. He was crying as he told me, tried to pull me to him and apologize, but I wouldn't let him touch me. I went out for a walk and tried to clear my head. When I got back he was asleep in bed, he'd put you to bed too, and I just watched him for a while before going downstairs again. I slept on the sofa that night.

"A few days later Kiyomi called while your father was at work. I asked her to tell me what had happened and her story matched Inoichi's to the letter. I managed to stay silent the whole time she was talking, but then she said..." mum shook her head in disbelief, "she said that just two weeks ago your father had told her he loved her. And then less than a week later he'd told her he couldn't see her anymore. Kiyomi started crying and I remembered that your dad had told me she was twenty-one. What am I supposed to do? I remember thinking that over and over again. He hadn't told me he loved me in what felt like years. I said it out loud, 'what am I supposed to do?' and Kiyomi cried harder and told me that she was so sorry, she felt awful, she didn't know why she'd done it.

"And I tell you, I felt so furious then. At your dad. For being so stupid as to play with the poor girl like that. What he'd done had hurt not only his family, but also a young girl who was still learning how relationships worked. And then I knew that I had to leave him."

"Which you did by kicking him out." I said slowly.

"Exactly. I packed his stuff up in less than two hours, I never knew I could work so fast. I wanted it done before he got home from work. I called for a van to arrive about half an hour after him and take him wherever he wanted to go. Seeing him go was hard. The hardest thing I'd ever experienced in my life at that point. He tried to call a lot over those next few days but I didn't want to even speak to him until we'd both had a chance to calm down. I admit, in our first conversation, I told him not to contact you. I was still angry. And then later, when I changed my mind, he was too angry to cooperate with me. He had to rebuild himself, I think. And I suppose now he's finished."

I nodded, suddenly remembering the early days after dad had left. Mum spent a lot of time crying in those days, crying into her coffee, over her toast, in the bath, in bed. She'd speak to her friends on the phone (none of them lived anywhere nearby, she'd always hated that) saying shrilly how much better off she was without him.

"_He was a waste of space!" _

_and,_

"_He had such a temper. He could never follow instructions – I'm well shot of him." _

_or even,_

"_Who needs an immature, lazy, self-obsessed commitment-phobe for a husband?"_

_and then there was,_

"_He never listened to me. Insensitive jerk."_

_And through it all I sat outside the living room door, hoarding these tidbits of information to myself. I was my father's daughter, I'd been told that enough, and this was my legacy._

"Ino? Are you okay?"

"Uh... yeah. Just remembering some stuff. Mum, would you say I'm like dad?"

She gave it some thought before replying, "In all the best ways, yes. You have his ease with social situations. His confidence and his charm. I think you're adaptive like he is too; you can fit in and survive anywhere. But you have a lot of me in you as well. I think you have my strength, and my ability to see things through even when it's tough. You care deeply about the people around you, you form permanent and strong attachments to your friends. That's like me. So yes and no, if that answers your question?"

I nodded, "I think it does. Thanks."


	24. Chapter 24

_**Here we are again, another chapter ready for reading! Thank you to my readers, all of them, but especially to the ever-lovely reviewers! Miss Hydrangea, thanks again for the correction and I'm glad you liked the texts! This chapter should be a bit more fun. demon lilith, you'll get your answers... eventually! missmridvika... one night!?! I'm amazingly flattered! Devil'sLittleBabyGirl you are indeed super-special-awesome =] and Aiko of the Akatsuki, your generosity and kindness never ceases to amaze me! Seriously, thank you all so much for bothering to write a review, not just once but continually! And now, what you're all here for... I hope you enjoy the chapter!**_

_**Disclaimer:**_

_**I own nothing.**_

**Study In Contrasts  
**

Thankfully mum let me stay home on Monday too; I couldn't face going in until I'd been allowed to wash my hair, but the doctors had been adamant that I couldn't until Monday night.

I did however have Sakura and Hinata round on Monday evening. It was one of those killing-two-birds-with-one-stone visits, allowing me to be caught up on some of the work (and gossip) that I'd missed and also allowing us to chat about all my new information.

We started with the schoolwork like good responsible teenagers, and twenty minutes later moved on to the interesting stuff.

"Sakura, did you catch Hinata up on my conversation with dad?"

Sakura nodded.

"Excellent." I rubbed my hands together in a vaguely sinister manner. "Now we can proceed with the next stage of our master plan." Sakura and Hinata looked at me blankly and I sighed, "Can't either of you deal with anything even slightly unrelated to the topic at hand?"

The blank looks continued.

"Fine then."

I gave them an overview of the conversation I'd had with mum on Sunday and they nodded along, looking solemn.

"Well the only thing I'm spotting," Sakura said confidently, "is that your dad hinted that he only slept with whatserface once. Whereas in your mum's version it was an ongoing thing for about three months."

I nodded and looked to Hinata, who nodded in agreement and added "If I were you I'd believe your mum more. She was more specific. And in addition she was honest about keeping your dad away from you. If she'd been trying to make herself look better then she could have tried to twist it a little."

"Good points guys." I fiddled with the weave of the wicker waste paper bin by my door, "Are there any other inconsistencies?"

"Not really." Sakura said.

"Or at least, not that I can see." Hinata confirmed.

"Well then. What next?"

A lengthy pause ensued.

"I propose," Sakura said eventually, "that you continue to get to know your dad and carry on strengthening your relationship with your mum. There's no need to cut off any of your options at this point, you may as well wait until you know as much as possible. And besides..." she frowned, "I did have another point but I forgot it. Whatever."

I clapped my hands together abruptly, "Right! With that business concluded for the moment, let us proceed to..." I inspected an imaginary piece of paper, "Sasuke's little freak-out episode at my party on Wednesday."

There was silence in the room.

"Well now, don't all speak at once." I prompted.

Sakura tensed up, "What about talking about Temari and Shikamaru instead?" she asked.

"What is there to tell? She hasn't contacted me since then so maybe there's something up, but until I talk to her there's no way of knowing what that may be."

"Do you think she might have found out that you like him?" Hinata asked hesitantly, and I shrugged.

"I don't see how. But it's irrelevant. We're not talking about that, we're talking about Sasuke."

"I don't see why you have to keep bringing this up." Sakura snapped, suddenly sounding angry.

I looked at her seriously, "Because talking about Sasuke is the only thing that makes you get defensive like that. And he's your boyfriend. Something's not right with that picture." I turned to Hinata, who was looking at the floor with a troubled expression. "Hinata, do you know what's going on?"

"No more than you do," she said softly, "except perhaps that... I know when-"

Sakura cut her off with a hiss, "Don't even think about going there."

I stood up, accidentally knocking the bin over as I did. "Okay, okay, if you don't trust me enough to say anything then that's _fine_." I spat, "But I would have thought after everything I've shared with you recently..." I shook my head, "You know what? Don't worry about it. You keep your secrets Sakura. I'm only asking because I care about you. I'm _worried _about you. But I guess you just aren't ready to tell me."

I turned and left, aware that I'd just stormed out of my own bedroom. I went downstairs and through the kitchen, past my concerned-looking mother and out of the back door. The garden was dark – it being early October the nights had really started to draw in. I went all the way down to the bottom of the garden and sat at the base of the big old cherry tree.

And no, I didn't miss the symmetry there of walking away from the cherry blossom to sit with the cherry tree.

Why wouldn't Sakura feel she could talk to me about whatever was going on with Sasuke? What could possibly be going on?

I closed my eyes, trying to reason it out.

What did I know about Sasuke?

He was very proud. And he had a lot to be proud of; he was good looking, intelligent, athletic. The only thing he was ever really lacking in was social skills, and that was for good reason really; practically his entire family had been killed in an accidental explosion in the company building when he was about eight years old. It was caused by a gas leak, and I think the hardest thing for Sasuke and his older brother to deal with was probably that there was nowhere to pin the blame.

Anyway, due to that he was also irrevocably messed up in ways that might never be fully understood.

He was a control freak and a perfectionist, those two things could be vouched for by anyone who'd had the unfortunate experience of trying to work on a group project with him. Very emotionally distant too.

How would he be as a boyfriend?

Perhaps as cold and aloof as he was with his friends? Or maybe possessive and controlling?

I thought about that second idea, trying to see if it fit in with the facts as I knew them, but I was interrupted by mum opening the backdoor and calling out.

"Ino? Are you out there still?"

Where else would I be? "Yeah, here by the tree."

"Your friends went home."

Oh.

I came in, accepting mum's offer of a cup of tea.

"Did you guys have a falling out?"

"Of sorts." I said with a sigh, "I'm worried about Sakura. Something's definitely wrong. But she won't talk to me about it."

"That's a tough one." mum sat down at the table with me, sliding across the tea and a plate of biscuits. "Do you have any clues?"

"It's something to do with Sasuke."

"Sasuke?" Mum frowned, "Weren't you all friends together once upon a time?"

"Yeah, in primary school for a while. They're together now. A couple." I was struck again by how wrong that felt, but shook it off.

"Huh. I didn't see that coming."

I laughed shortly, "Me neither. He's kind of... emotionally crippled."

Mum suppressed a grin, "That seems like an unkind way of putting it."

"Harsh but true," I replied lightly, "He's been acting weird though. And she seems almost scared of him." I briefly explained what had happened at the party and mum looked concerned.

"You're right, it looks like there's something odd going on. But if she doesn't want to talk about it you can't force her. And when it's about a guy... people can be even more protective of their relationship problems than almost any other type of secret. If that makes any sense?"

I picked up a biscuit and started nibbling around the edges thoughtfully.

"Yeah, I think that makes sense."

"It's a shame really," she commented, "because relationships are where you probably most benefit from getting another person's perspective." Mum shrugged and I grinned.

"Much as I'd love to hear more pearly words of wisdom, I have to go wash my hair or there's no way I'll be able to go to school tomorrow. And you know how much I hate to miss school."

Mum laughed at that, "Go on then: to the shower with you, little miss sarcastic!"

Who am I to disobey a direct instruction from my mother?

/\/\/\/\

Tuesday morning. First lesson. Double art.

I stood outside the classroom, suddenly not sure whether I could handle it without giving myself away. I had this random fear that he'd start talking about Temari. At any rate, I was pretty sure I'd feel like crying when he treated me, as he would, in exactly the same way he'd always treated me.

In a word: Please don't make me.

Despite my misgivings I eventually managed to persuade myself to actually enter the classroom.

I opened the door with confidence, walking in like I knew I was the hottest girl in any given room at any given time. I was walking, talking sex. And Shikamaru...

Wasn't even there yet. Anticlimax much?

Although, to be fair, I was about ten minutes early.

I sighed and sat down in my usual spot, getting some clean sheets of paper out of my art folder and setting my pencils out.

Then something cold and slightly squishy bounced off my head, landing on the page in front of me. I picked it up to inspect it: grey and about the size of a pomegranate seed, it was a tiny lump of clay.

No prizes for guessing who it came from.

I looked up and sent a scowl across the room at Deidara, though it was slightly lost on him since he wasn't even looking at me.

I glanced around the room, Deidara and I were two of only four people already there.

"Hey pretty boy," I called, and he turned around all ready to deny his little clay attack. He was, however, met unexpectedly with a 6B sketching pencil to the face.

"Oh, way mature, bimbo. Yeah." He said while rubbing his nose.

"Mature? Maybe not. But I do have phenomenal aim."

Then the door opened and Shikamaru walked in, and despite all of my mental preparation I swear I stopped breathing for a moment.

Shikamaru came and sat next to me, muttering a 'hi' as he did. And I'd been right, it made me miserable. I shook myself internally, aware that there was no way my face wasn't reflecting my feelings. The last thing I wanted at this point was for Shikamaru to realize how I felt about him now, when it was too late for anything to come of it.

I closed my eyes and dipped my head toward the paper on the table in front of me, picking up a pencil as if I was thinking about drawing and not just trying to hide my actual thoughts which were more along the lines of "damn Temari, damn Shikamaru, damn me and my stupid crush".

Then another piece of clay hit me and my head snapped up sharply.

Deidara was looking at me from across the room, his expression unreadable.

"What the hell?" I mouthed at him, and I caught the smug grin that spread across his face before he turned back to his sculpture. I shook my head and went back to staring at my blank piece of paper. Weirdo.

I'd had an idea the other day of drawing the same thing in slightly different ways to show how different people looked at it, but I was really struggling to fix any specifics in my mind.

Aware that if I didn't get something done I'd probably catch it in the neck from Kakashi, I started sketching without thinking too hard about it, hoping to get some subconscious inspiration.

I let my hand move across the page without censorship, sketching out the shape of a figure leaning against another wall. And then another figure, pressed up against the first...

Oops.

Crumpling the paper up I put it to one side a little sheepishly. Maybe it would be a good idea to control the pencil a little more than that. What about a street? I could do that. A dark street, full of fear for one person, full of possibility for another. Perhaps two versions of it?

There was some appeal there, and though I liked the idea rather than loving it it was better than nothing. I got sketching on the guidelines to make sure all the buildings would be on the same scale and even managed to spend the next two hours only thinking about Shikamaru every, I don't know, fifteen seconds or so?

Well it felt like an achievement to me, anyway.

The bell rang for the end of class and I stood up, packing my pencils and paper away with an internal sigh of relief. Kakashi called me over with a brief beckoning gesture.

"Ino, have you got some progress on your sketches?"

I thought about lying to him for all of about four seconds before I shook my head.

"Not really. I keep getting these ideas that I find interesting, but I can't get the sketches to have any kind of feeling."

"You're on break now, right?" I nodded, "Let me see them."

Kakashi looked through my work of the last two hours as the rest of the class filtered out.

"What's that crumpled one?"

I looked over and realized I'd left it out on the table, "Oh... that's one I kind of gave up on."

"I want to see it."

I shot Kakashi a skeptical look but went over and fetched the paper anyway, smoothing it out on his desk for him to have a look at.

"Mm-hm. Go with this."

"What?"

He looked at me, his nose mouth and eye still covered, so the only clue that he was smiling was that his right eye crinkled slightly at the edge.

"Just look at it. It has more in it than any of your other sketches, even at this stage."

"But..."

"Just _look _at it."

I bottled my objections for the moment to really inspect the picture. And he was right, somehow. There was emotion in this picture, even at this early stage. But how could I draw that? Shikamaru would know instantly that it was him and Temari. That would be... hideously embarrassing. And a problem for our friendship. _On the other hand_, I reminded myself, _the picture would be amazing. And how much do you talk to Shikamaru anyway? So things might be awkward between the two of you, but he wouldn't make a big deal out of it and wreck your standing in the rest of the group._

Without my permission my head started nodding and Kakashi's eye crinkled even more.

"Good. Take that home and redraw it. I want to see a finished picture by the end of tomorrow's lesson. Off you go!"

I put all my sketches together in my folder and left, still slightly reeling.

"Your hair is looking marginally less gross, yeah."

Oh for the love of...

"Are you stalking me or what?" I growled at Deidara, who responded with a pitying look.

"You wish, hn."

"So what are you doing still outside the classroom?"

"Waiting for Sasori, yeah."

"... Fine." I turned around and started walking.

"Want to wait with me, hm?" His tone was mocking.

Fists clenched, eyes narrowed, I turned back around and marched up to him.

"Listen to me," I said clearly, "You piss me off. You and your little 'gang', thinking you're all so cool because for some reason you don't seem to get in trouble for all the nasty stuff I'm sure you do. I don't care whether you're just trying to mess with me with all this chucking things at me and... whatever." I paused to catch my breath and attempt to figure out where I was actually going with this little rant. "Yeah, okay, I'm grateful to you for helping out with getting me to the hospital. That was cool of you. But you're a massive ass anyway, and I am WELL aware of that."

Deidara regardeds me thoughtfully. "A massive ass, yeah? On what basis?"

I just looked at him in disbelief, "The _first _time you ever spoke to me was practically a threat because you'd bumped into me. The _second _time I saw you you were helping your friend to bully mine. And the _third _time you tripped over me and threw another of my friends against a wall! I rest my case!"

Deidara leaned toward me a little and I was suddenly aware of how close we were standing.

"How interesting," he commented, "that you remember all that, hm?"

I let out a little gasp of frustration and walked away again.

_I will not enter into this conversation, I will not indulge his ego, I will not play this stupid little game._

"See you in art, yeah!" He called cheerfully after me.

Ass.

/\/\/\/\

In my last lesson of the day, English lit, I was given a notice. Tsunade wanted to see me in her office after school. I said goodbye to Hinata as I left the classroom, she'd been fairly subdued since I'd walked out on her and Sakura the night before but she was still just about talking to me, and headed down the corridor that would take me to the head teacher's office.

Despite feeling fairly certain that I hadn't done anything wrong I was still a little nervous as I went in. Tsunade was sitting at her desk, sipping something that smelled heavily alcoholic and looking at me with thinly veiled curiosity.

"Ino, take a seat. Anko will be here in a minute."

"Anko?" I asked, sitting down, "As in my chemistry teacher?"

"No." She said sarcastically, "I'm talking about another Anko. One you've never met. She wanted to talk to you."

"I thought headteachers were supposed to take their students seriously." I said sulkily.

"And I thought you were meant to be intelligent." She said, taking a swig from the bottle in front of her. "Looks like we were both wrong."

"Ah... Tsunade?" I looked around to see Shizune standing in the doorway and looking alarmed, "How did you get hold of that?"

"You hid it well." I could hear Tsunade's voice beginning to slur, "But I am _too smart _for you!"

"Oh dear..." Shizune came over and tried to pry the bottle away.

"NO! Mine!" Tsunade pulled back, hard, and Shizune almost lost her balance. She collected herself and straightened up, standing a safe distance away.

"Tsunade-sama, Anko is here to see you."

"Okay," Tsunade waved the bottle haphazardly in the air, "send her on in then."

Shizune left, shaking her head miserably, and Anko joined us.

"Hey Tsunade, drinking without me?" The two women laughed at that, though why they found it so funny is anyone's guess, and then turned to me simultaneously.

"What am I doing here?" I asked while I had their attention.

"I think you show a lot of promise in my subject." Anko said, "And I want to try putting you in advanced chemistry."

I gaped at her, "You're kidding?"

"Not at all. I know you weren't doing that well in your previous school, but the work you've been submitting to me is of an excellent standard. You've shown dedication and commitment and you've improved vastly. I think that advanced chemistry would stretch you more and really give you the chance to push yourself."

"But... I'm pushing myself already!" I gabbled, "I'm already finding it hard and I don't think I could keep up with even more work It's just not something I'm good at and although I'm really really flattered... I just can't."

I didn't miss the irony here. How long ago was it that Sakura and I had been planning on getting me into advanced chemistry so I could get closer to Shikamaru? And now I'd gotten in completely by accident, I didn't seem to be talking to Sakura and Shikamaru was no longer available.

"C-ahn too." Tsunade replied petulantly, tipping her bottle up for the last drops.

"Isn't there some kind of test I have to do first?" I asked desperately, remembering something from a conversation I'd had with Sakura about changing classes.

"Ahhh, never mind that." Tsunade responded, "I'm in charge, and I say FORGET the test!"

"Sakura's in advanced chemistry." Anko continued, acting as if she hadn't heard my objections, "She can help you out if you're struggling. And if it is way too much for you we can always move you back down."

"Am I not getting a say in this?"

"Uh, not really."

I ran a hand through my hair irritably and glared down at my knees, "Fine, fine, you'll see what a mistake this was when I'm failing within twenty minutes of the first lesson. But okay, if that's what you want. I'll make an idiot of myself in front of all the school geniuses. Whatever you say." I looked up again, "Can I go now?"

Anko and Tsunade had stopped paying attention to me – Tsunade had brought out another bottle of whatever it was she had been drinking and they were passing it back and forth across the table, giggling like schoolchildren.

"I'll take that as a yes."

/\/\/\/\

Mum was already back when I got home, doing work in the kitchen.

"Hey mum, had a good day?"

"Yes, I got a lot done. Including some shopping, so there are lots of options for food tonight. Did you have a good day?"

"Yes and no."

Mum looked up at me and pushed her work to one side, "Come, sit, tell."

I accepted her invitation.

"I didn't talk to Sakura all day, and things were really awkward between Hinata and I. And I had an argument with this guy who's been bugging me and he's trying to screw with my head and it's annoying me. But on the other hand, I finally made a breakthrough in my art coursework. Oh, and I've been moved up to advanced chemistry. But that's got bad things about it because now I'll be in Sakura's class and also..." I sighed, not sure I wanted to go into the whole thing with Shikamaru.

Mum smiled sympathetically, "Okay, first of all: congratulations on the art work, and a massive well done for getting moved up in chemistry!"

I laughed, "Thanks."

"What was the additional bad point that went with that though?"

"Well," I hesitated, "I kind of had... a crush. On this guy in my year. He's super-smart and he's in advanced chemistry too. I used to just see him in art. Anyway, he and Temari got together at my party the other day. Temari didn't know I liked him, so... yeah."

"Oh, that sucks." mum looked sad, "That must have hurt."

"Yeah. Art today wasn't quite as bad as I'd worried it would be, but it was pretty tough sitting next to him. He doesn't talk much though so at least I didn't have to try to have a normal conversation with him."

"So what about that other guy who's been getting on your nerves? Do you have a crush on him?"

"Ew. No, him and his friends have this giant problem with my friends. Only the second time I ever saw this guy he was stopping me from interfering while a friend of his was bullying Gaara."

"Has he been bullying you too?" her eyes narrowed dangerously and I hurried to reassure her.

"No, not even a little bit. He's just annoying because... I don't know. He flicks stuff at me in art – not in a mean way. Just for something to do, I think. Wait, you've met him!"

"I have?"

"Yeah, it's Deidara. You know, the blonde guy who you gave a lift back from the hospital."

Mum's eyes widened in recognition.

"I thought he was a friend of yours."

"Well, he kind of was for an evening."

"You said he was messing with your head?"

"Maybe that's an unfair accusation," I admitted, "but it's like... he's nice to me. And then he's trying to wind me up. And then I'll say something and he'll react in some totally unexpected way. And then he'll be bullying one of my friends and I'm just thinking: what?"

Mum smiled, "Do you think he might have a crush on you?"

"Nah. He's not flirting with me, he's just being weird."

Mum nodded and the two of us sat in comfortable silence for a few minutes before I stood up again.

"I have to go do some art work. Kakashi wants to see a finished picture by the end of tomorrow's lesson so I have a ways to go."

"Okay, I have work to do as well. By the way, could I maybe see your picture when it's finished?" I looked at her, surprised, and she smiled. "I don't think I've ever really seen any of your art."

"Sure, I'll bring it down when I'm done with the line art."

Walking up the stairs to my room, I remember being unusually content. Not over-the-moon happy, mind. In a lot of ways I still felt like I was walking a tightrope, and thinking about Sakura or Shikamaru or Temari or Kin or Deidara gave me the feeling of looking down and knowing that one wrong step would send me off my precarious path. But now, unlike before, I felt like I had a safety net. And it made all the difference in the world.


	25. Chapter 25

_**As promised! Chapter 25. It's not super long, mostly because my exams at the moment are taking up every spare moment of my life. AS levels are brain-meltingly hard T_T However! My last exam of the term is tomorrow morning, so then I can go back to proper writing. And now for the thanks! Yaoi Note-Yaoi Goddess XD gets a mention and - as usual - special thanks goes out to my amazing, inspirational and all-round lovely regular reviewers: Devil'sLittleBabyGirl, missmridvika, demon lilith, Aiko of the Akatsuki and Miss Hydrangea! The fact that people are kind enough to read and support this story makes me so happy I could almost bear to revise! Now, without further ado...**_

_**Disclaimer:**_

_**I don't own Naruto! (and NOW, without further ado...)**_

**Study In Contrasts  
**

The next morning started with chemistry. Way to chuck me in at the deep end.

I deliberately left it until only a few minutes before the beginning of the lesson to walk in, hoping that there would be an obvious place for me to sit. Unfortunately it seemed the universe wanted to make things more difficult for me today; I could either sit on the back row on my own or next to Sakura at the front of the class.

Meeting Sakura's eyes I saw surprise pass across her face as she realized what my being there meant. I offered her a small smile and words cannot describe how relieved I was when she smiled back and patted the chair next to her.

I took my place just as the teacher came into the room. A tall man with bandages wrapped tightly around the top of his head and a white cloth covering the left side of his face. I'd given up on being surprised when teachers came in with their faces hidden, it was clearly something that was unusually common here.

"What's his name?" I whispered to Sakura.

"Baki." She replied quietly, "He's nicer than he looks."

"Good. Because he looks a little scary."

In addition to the bizarre head accessories he had two dark red tattoos on his right cheek, stretching off into the bandages over his ear, in a sort of wavy triangle shape.

Even though his appearance was weird his teaching style was refreshingly normal and we were talked through a double page spread in the textbook before being told to take notes and answer the questions.

I wrote a note for Sakura on a new sheet of lined paper and slid it over.

_I'm sorry if I went too far the other day. -I_

_It's fine. I'm sorry I got so angry at you. I know you're trying to help me, it's just that it's not as big a deal as you think. -S_

_In that case, why don't you want to tell me? -I_

_I don't know. But it's not about trust. I trust you completely. -S_

_Same here, just so you know. But on a separate note... Could you give me a hand with question three? -I_

Sakura laughed and leaned over to talk me through the process of converting mass of a substance into atomic mass into number of moles into concentration per cubic decimeter... Well, it made more sense at the time.

/\/\/\/\

"You know what we actually haven't gotten around to having a real chat about yet?" Sakura asked as we left chemistry.

"Go on, what?"

"Shikamaru and Temari."

The sketch in my art folder seemed to suddenly weigh an awful lot.

"Oh yeah. Um, I have to get to Spanish. But maybe we can chat at break?"

"Sounds good." Sakura caught me in a quick hug and jogged off to whatever her next lesson was.

Spanish seemed to drag on almost endlessly. I spent a lot of time pretending to listen while actually looking up random words in the dictionary. Did you know that Spanish for 'sheep' is 'oveja'? Neither did I. But I wasted almost ten minutes doodling cartoon sheep all over my blank worksheet and writing 'oveja' in funky writing all around them.

Thanks to that incredibly productive hour I was able to greet Sakura in the sixth form common room with a confident "hola, tonta". She looked at me, mystified.

"Speaking in tongues now? What does that mean?"

"It's Spanish," I replied smugly, "for: hello, idiot."

"Great. Fantastic. Your mother must be so proud." Sakura teased, "Actually, on that note, congrats on making it to advanced chemistry!"

"Thanks." I blushed, "I didn't actually mean to. I think it's all thanks to your help with all my homework and stuff."

"The point is that you managed to impress Anko. That was definitely done by you in your lessons. But if you'd rather not talk about that, can we have a quick chat about the Shikamaru and Temari situation?"

I looked around to check that nobody from our immediate friendship group was within hearing distance, but they'd all gone down to buy snacks so we were safe.

"Sure, if you like. I don't know how much of a 'situation' it is. As far as I'm aware they're together now. Actually," I frowned, "Temari hasn't texted me or called me or anything."

"Weird." Sakura flopped down on a sofa and I sat down next to her. She glanced at me, "What do you make of that?"

"I have no idea." I said honestly, "Temari's always really straight with people she has a problem with. I can't remember anything that's happened that might make her want to avoid talking to me. And I would have expected her to want to talk about things with Shikamaru." An idea hit me then and I got my phone out. "I'm going to quickly call Kiba." Sakura nodded and I moved away to dial the number.

"Hey Ino." He said as he picked up, "You okay?"

"Yeah. You?"

"Uh, yeah, not bad."

"How are things with the queen bitch?"

Kiba sighed, "Well actually, things have been a bit weird around school these last few days."

"Oh?"

"I mean, obviously Ten Ten and I haven't spoken to Kin since Wednesday. But Temari and her are thick as thieves. And Kin's been working on that group from the year above – do you remember? Jirobo, Tayuya, Kidomaru... uh..."

"Sakon and Kimimaro? I remember them."

"Yeah, well she's got them on side too now. I think she felt the need to do some recruitment since with you, me and Ten Ten gone her group was looking significantly thinner."

"Why's Temari sided with her?" I asked, baffled. Sakura looked up at this, frowning.

"I can tell you honestly I have no idea. But I'll bet that somewhere along the lines of the explanation we'll find out that Kin has screwed with the truth big time. I've tried to talk to her – Temari, that is, not Kin – but Kin won't leave her alone for a moment."

"Okay. Well, you keep trying. I'll see if I can get hold of her. I have to go."

"Nice chatting with you."

"Bye!" I hung up. "I'm not sure what to make of that."

"What to make of what?"

I sat down next to Sakura again. "Temari and Kin are really close, ever since Wednesday."

"Huh."

The bell rang, making us both jump. "What? No way it's been fifteen minutes already!"

"I beg to differ." Sakura stood up, offering a hand to pull me to my feet as well. "What's your next lesson?"

"Art. Yours?"

"Maths. We'll have to talk more about this later though."

"Definitely." I agreed. "See you later."

/\/\/\/\

Shikamaru was already sitting down when I got to the art room. Rather than going to my normal place next to him I sat at the end of the row of tables. Shikamaru shot me a puzzled look but I pretended not to see it, getting my sketch out and hoping that from this distance he wouldn't be able to make out the details.

The door to the classroom opened and I looked up instantly – to see Kakashi.

"You're early. For you." I commented as he sat down.

"Mmm. I am, aren't I?" He sat down at his desk, put his feet up and got his book out.

I rolled my eyes and went back to my picture. I'd finished with the outlines, now it was time to start on the painting. I liked to work with watercolour paints mostly, I liked the subtleties of colour you could achieve. I always tried to dilute the paints as little as possible though. I hated those wishy-washy watercolour paintings that looked like they were done in different shades of white. I may have been using watercolours but my pictures were always pretty striking.

Obviously I had to begin with the base layer. I was using proper art paper, designed for painting on, but even so I wanted to keep the number of layers down if I could to avoid overloading it. I painted the first layer of the colours on the clothes in the picture, adding a dark grey background around the two figures.

I was just putting the finishing touches on the base coats for the skin and hair when a voice at my ear made me jump.

"That's almost good, yeah."

I narrowed my eyes at Deidara as he strolled round to the other side of the table to get a better look.

"Count yourself very lucky that I didn't smudge anything when you did that."

He held the picture up carefully, sliding a hand gently underneath it to lift it closer to his face.

"Interesting. I think I might recognize this person, hmm?"

My face suddenly felt very warm and I knew I was blushing in a big way. I tried very hard not to look over at Shikamaru. I glanced up at Deidara and saw that he was facing Shikamaru with a contemplative look on his face.

"Don't look, idiot." I muttered.

"Why, worried I might give you away, yeah? Who's this he's with?" Despite his defiant tone Deidara lowered his voice and looked back at me.

I shrugged, "Another friend of mine."

Deidara snorted softly, "Ouch. This a real scene then, hm?"

"Mind your own business and give me my picture back." I held out a hand expectantly but he just carried on looking between me and my picture.

"I think we should put aside our differences and agree to be friends... hn."

Surprised by the apparent randomness of the statement, I laughed. "That came out of nowhere. And I said the other day-"

"I know what you said, yeah. And I thought a lot of it wasn't quite fair. You don't know the whole story and I think you ought to before you start calling people asses. Besides, I like your art. What do you say, hm?" His tone was very casual, so much so that I half wondered if he was taking the piss.

"I don't think friendship quite works that way."

"Why not?" He flashed me a quick grin, "Tell you what. If you agree then I'll give you your picture back, yeah."

I rolled my eyes. "That's not really the right way to start a friendship. With blackmail."

"Not blackmail, hn. Bribery. Does that mean you accept?"

"I guess so." I said warily. "Now do I get my work back?"

"Of course, yeah." he laid the picture carefully back on the table and walked over to his clay on the other side of the classroom. And I was left wondering what on earth I'd just agreed to.

/\/\/\/\

Sakura and Hinata saved me my usual space in between the two of them at lunch.

"I need to talk to you guys," I said quietly as I sat down. Hinata nodded slightly to show she'd heard and Sakura sent me a curious glance across her mashed potatoes. I ate as quickly as I could then got up and left, heading up to the common room. Moments later I was joined by Hinata and then Sakura and we sat on some beanbags in the corner.

I was getting some very confused looks from my two friends but I thought about what I wanted to say for a moment longer.

"You both know of Deidara, don't you?" They both nodded warily, "And I'm guessing neither of you are his biggest fans?" Another set of nods, "Well I'm kind of friends with him now. And if you want to know how that happened I can tell you exactly how, because it was bizarre."

"Go on," Sakura said, looking intrigued.

"He basically held my art work to ransom and said he wanted us to 'put aside our differences' and be friends. Then he said he wouldn't give my painting back unless I agreed. So I did." I sat back and braced myself for the disapproval.

"Okay. That's pretty weird. Did he just kind of blurt it out?"

"Umm, yes and no. It sounded like it might have had some kind of rationalization in his head, but it didn't really make sense in terms of the conversation we were having."

"You were having a conversation?" Sakura sounded amused.

"He talks to me in art sometimes."

Hinata and Sakura exchanged a significant look and I fiddled with a strand of my hair, feeling like a traitor.

"I'm sorry." I said, "I know he and his friends bully Naruto and sometimes Gaara too, and I had a real go at him the other day. I thought he'd leave me alone after that but apparently not."

Hinata looked utterly confused, "Ino, why are you sorry?"

"Because being friends with him is like betraying you guys."

"Ino," Sakura said gently, "That's a Kin mindset. You can be friends with who you like, so long as you don't turn on us."

"What, so... you're not annoyed?"

"No." Hinata said firmly.

"Just surprised." Sakura confirmed.

Well that changed things. More than I thought it would. Once I didn't feel guilty about getting along with Deidara I could admit to myself that he wasn't actually all that bad. Compared to petty criminals or the flu virus.

"You guys," I said decisively, "are very, very cool."

Sakura laughed at that, and Hinata blushed ten shades of red.

Okay, so now that I didn't have to worry about a friendship with Deidara betraying my other friends, did I feel any different about it?

A quick scan of the common room revealed the Akatsuki kids sitting over by the window in their usual cluster of sofas. Deidara was there too, of course, sitting in between Sasori and a boy with an orange and black swirly mask who I didn't recognize.

I watched as the masked kid said something that made him, and nobody else, laugh. Whatever he said seemed to be at Deidara's expense because he stood up and glared down at Mr mask with a murderous look in his eyes. He said something slowly and the boy in the mask appeared to apologize, mollifying Deidara slightly, before immediately putting his foot in it again and ending up with a punch to the side of the head. I smiled a little watching them; it was sort of like watching the antics of baby animals. Although you don't really understand what's going on you can still be amused in a sort of patronizing way. _Aren't they funny_, kind of thing.

"Hey? Earth to Ino?" Sakura nudged me with her shoulder and I drew my attention back to our little triangle of bean bags.

Sakura and Hinata smiled slightly at each other and both burst into giggles. I could guess what they were thinking.

"Way mature guys." I said imperiously, "I have the perfect quote for this situation: Never argue with idiots. They'll drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience. Well I don't intend to allow that to happen!"

It took them a little while to stop sniggering, and then both of them had biology, and I was left on my own for a free period.

Not for long though. It seemed Deidara took his new found role of 'friend' very seriously.

"Hey bimbo. Sitting alone, hm?" He dropped into the bean bag opposite me.

"Not anymore." I observed.

"I want to know about that picture of yours, hn."

I laughed disbelievingly, "Oh do you? You're going to have to be a little more subtle than that if you're looking to wheedle secrets out of me. Why don't you go first and tell me why anything I said to you the other day was unfair?"

"I asked first, yeah." He pointed out.

"I'm not going to just tell you something you could use against me without getting some kind of security first." I objected.

Deidara just laughed at that, "I thought you agreed we were friends, hm?"

"I don't even trust my friends without evidence that it's a good idea."

"Fine, hn. Why don't you ask me a specific question and I'll answer it. Then I get to do the same to you."

"Alright. Let's start with... what does your gang have against Gaara and Naruto?"

I don't know if I was really expecting him to answer me or just dodge the question and look for a new game, but answer he did.

"It's not really that simple. Sasori has a grudge against Gaara for a reason that goes back to their families and the place they're both from. Kisame just finds Naruto annoying. As for Kakuzu... he'll try to get money out of anybody, yeah. Naruto's just a convenient target for weekly ransoms because his family's so rich."

I looked at Deidara in mingled annoyance and disbelief. "I can't believe you're so casual about it."

"It's not like I have much choice... hn. Anyway, my turn to ask a question. And my question is: what's the story behind your picture in art, hm?"

How did I know that would be his question? I sighed, might as well get it over with.

"The simplest version is this: I had a crush on Shikamaru, I invited him to that party I threw, he met one of my friends from my old school and they vanished. A little while later I went upstairs and found them entangled with each other in my room. Hence the picture."

"When I saw you outside had you just walked in on them, yeah?"

"Mm-hm."

Deidara nodded slowly, taking that in.

"My turn. Tell me about the Akatsuki."

"That's not a question, hn."

"I'm sure you can find the question in there somewhere."

"Fine, hm. We have some immunity at school because Orochimaru is quite close to both the headteacher and the guy in charge of our 'little gang', hn. That's why some of us can seem to... bend the rules on occasion. I have my suspicions about why it was set up in the first place, hm. But Pein, the one who started it, isn't a bad guy, yeah."

"Bend the rules..." I muttered, "Tormenting people isn't what I call 'bending the rules'. But whatever, it's your turn to ask a question."

We ended up talking for the rest of the free period.

I learned from Deidara that he hadn't wanted to join the gang when he'd been invited, but Itachi had challenged him to a fight and he had lost, leading to his comment earlier about not having much of a choice. He told me about living with Pein and Konan, who were aged 22 and 20 respectively, at the time because he couldn't stand his dad's girlfriend.

I also discovered that the tattoos on his hands were supposed to symbolize how he felt that he spoke through his sculptures, and that he liked to smash his finished pieces of art once they dried.

"Art is transient, fleeting beauty." He told me with a light in his eyes. "Plus it's a great stress reliever, yeah."

I had to tell him exactly what Kin had done to me when she'd attacked me at my party. He also wanted to know about me and Kiba, how long we'd been friends and why. When I was talking about that I mentioned how I used to be really involved in the party scene and then he wanted to know all sorts of details about that.

When the bell went for the end of the day I was caught by surprise. I'd completely lost track of time during the hour. I'd say 'time flies when you're having fun', but I'm not sure that really applied there. The conversation was very interesting, don't get me wrong, but it was more embarrassing than fun – being under scrutiny like that.

I watched Deidara unfold himself from the bean bag and stretch out his arms in front of him.

"See you tomorrow bimbo, hm."

"Bye."

From a complete ass to someone I could happily sped an hour talking to. Isn't it funny how quickly the way you see somebody can shift?


	26. Chapter 26

**_Oh my goodness gracious me! A landmark: 100 reviews! I'm so happy! Thank you a hundred times to everyone who's ever reviewed, and a hundred thousand times to people who've reviewed recently; Poet Bucky and Devil'sLittleBabyGirl. Thank you a million times to my fantastic regular reviewers, those of you who've been reviewing since the beginning and have continued to do so; _**_**Miss Hydrangea and demon lillith. Missmridvika comes in here too for the reviews at intervals and the sheer awesomeness of catching up on the entire story in one sitting! And a super special gazillion thank you's to Aiko of the Akatsuki, I can't believe you've been kind enough to review every single chapter!!! You're amazing and your writing is amazing and thankyouthankyouthankyou for being so endlessly kind. And now for chapter 26!**_

_**Disclaimer:**_

_**I don't own Naruto T_T**_

**Study In Contrasts  
**

Finally: the last piece of homework for the day was finished. I pushed my textbooks away with a relieved sigh and mum looked up from her own work.

"All done?"

"Yep. You nearly finished?"

"Well done. I just have a couple more chapters to check through. I'll call you when it's time to eat."

I gathered up my school stuff and went upstairs. For the last week or so I'd taken to doing my homework in the kitchen while mum did her work opposite. It was nice because I didn't get distracted as much (I even left my mobile up in my room), so it got done faster, and mum always offered me a congratulations when I finished a piece. My phone's text alert was going off as I went through the door to my room. _Two new messages_.

One was from Kiba, "Hey, any way we could meet up tomorrow? I haven't seen you in a couple of days and I'm getting withdrawal symptoms =P" and I sent back a reply right away to say that I'd meet him at his house after school. The other message, "What does your mum do for a living?" was from Deidara.

We'd been 'friends' for a week and our question game had continued, usually by text in the afternoons unless Deidara came up with a question at school that he wanted to ask before he forgot. He still wouldn't come up and talk to me around my friends, except for in art where he was perfectly happy to chat in front of Shikamaru, or his, apart from Sasori. Hinata and Sakura had, predictably, found the question game hilarious when I told them about it, but I didn't find it too irritating – I was just relieved that they weren't angry about it! Although Hinata had told me that Naruto was being targeted less since Deidara and I had started talking so perhaps they thought I was using my influence with the enemy to our advantage.

I texted Deidara back, "My mum edits books for a publishing house. Normally just a chapter or short story at a time, but sometimes they give her a full book and asks her to check for inconsistencies, which she hates doing. When did your parents split up?"

It had felt pretty weird at first, asking and being asked personal questions like that without any build up, but once I got used to it I kind of enjoyed it. It was a fun way to get to know somebody – without all the awkwardness of 'do I know this person well enough to ask them about such-and-such?'. We just got on with it. I'd even stopped worrying that he was going to use the things I said against me. We were starting to trust each other, and I was enjoying that as well.

I put my phone aside to do some art work. I'd finished that first picture of Temari and Shikamaru, and also the second in the series: me in the doorway from Shikamaru's point of view. I'd also done the sketch and base layer of the third, which was me in the doorway again but from Temari's point of view. In Shikamaru's version I looked shocked, upset and a little vulnerable. In Temari's I looked shocked, angry and a little jealous. It's all in the eyebrows.

Temari. I still hadn't seen or heard from her, and hanging out with Kiba and Ten Ten the other day had revealed that Kin still had Temari wrapped around her little finger. Or at least, that was how it looked. I maintained that Temari wasn't the type to let herself be taken charge of by anyone. Not that it was relevant, after all, whether she and Kin were BFFs or not she still didn't seem keen on talking to me. I had even sent her a couple of texts saying hi. No reply.

I worked on my pictures, starting on the sketches for a new series, Sakura, Sasuke and me in the kitchen at my party, until mum called me down to eat.

"So, any news, gossip, scandal or jokes?" she asked as she served up the shepherd's pie.

"Not much. I finished another picture, and I got a B+ in my chemistry test the other day."

"Well done." Mum smiled.

"Thanks. Do you have any news?"

"I don't think so. Your dad wants to see you this weekend though."

"Okay, sure. I don't have any plans."

I hadn't seen dad since two weeks ago when he told me his sorry story. I still hadn't completely decided whether I was going to take him up on fudging the truth about how long he was seeing Kiyomi for. It would be interesting to see him anyway, and as Sakura had said, it would be good to get to know him more and I could decide where to go from there. Mum and I ate in comfortable silence for a moment.

"Oh, did you ever get any answers about that problem between Sakura and Sasuke?"

I shook my head, "I dropped it. I didn't want to get into another argument, and I figure that she now knows that if she wants to talk about it I'm more than happy to listen."

"Very wise. And what happened with that boy who was annoying you?"

"Deidara?"

She nodded, and an image of my mobile phone flashed into my head – I was bound to have a reply from him by now.

"Well... we're kind of friends now."

Mum looked amused, "How did that happen then?"

"Basically he held my art to ransom and forced me to agree to it."

"And has he stopped throwing things at you?"

"Well actually no. If anything it's encouraged him to do it even more."

"That sounds fun." Mum laughed.

"Oh yeah," I said sarcastically, "It's a riot."

I had been right with my earlier thought – when I got back to my room I had another text message.

"When I was seven. When did yours split? -Deidara"

The unwritten rules of the game were clear on this; I wasn't obliged to answer more than one question a day. It was interesting that he hadn't wanted to add any additional details though, presumably I'd hit on something he was a little more sensitive about. Maybe I could take advantage of that to stop him bugging me in art lessons.

/\/\/\/\

Actually, despite my numerous complaints about Deidara flicking bits of clay at me in art it did come in handy for distracting me from Shikamaru. Pretty much any time I got all wistful or started staring at the spiky brown hair across the room (I still wasn't sitting next to him), I'd feel something bounce off my head and end up glaring at Deidara instead. Although the glare was basically for effect now. To be honest I was far too used to the clay bombardment to find it annoying, I actually almost enjoyed the diversion, and usually got an opportunity to chuck something back into the bargain.

When the bell rang for the end of the lesson I went over to wash out my paintbrushes in the sink like the responsible artist I am. And when I turned around the very thing I'd been trying to avoid for about a week and a half was happening.

Shikamaru was looking at my pictures.

I got back to the desk quickly, but not quickly enough. He was holding the paintings and all I could do was watch as his expression shifted through confusion, recognition, surprise and sudden understanding, followed by nothing. He looked at me, completely neutral.

"I..." I began, then looked down at the table.

"They're very good." he allowed, laying them back on the table. "Ino, I didn't know..."

I peered up as he shook his head and walked away, picking up his own bag and leaving the classroom. Deidara came over then.

"I guess that was exactly what you didn't want to happen, hm?"

"Shut up." I dragged my art folder up onto the table and started shoving my paintings into it.

"Be careful with those, yeah."

"Shut _up_."

"What's wrong with you?" Deidara's voice was harsher now, "So he saw them, big deal! Hn."

"Big deal? Not only is it hideously embarrassing, it's probably also ruined mine and Shikamaru's friendship, and on top of that he'll probably tell Temari about it and then she'll never speak to me again either!" Even though she already isn't speaking to me for some reason, but still. Deidara didn't need to know that.

"Because you and him were such close friends before, clearly, hn." He said snidely.

"Didn't I just tell you to shut up?" Apparently that was the wrong thing to say.

"I know why you're really upset, yeah." Deidara spat.

"Oh right?"

"Because," he mocked, "you wanted him to choose you over Temari as soon as he realized how you felt. And guess what! He didn't, hm."

I gasped out of sheer anger, "I cannot believe you..."

Deidara was shouting now, "You're pissed because I'm right, and you just don't want to admit it because it makes you look like a disloyal, conceited bitch!" I just stared at him, slightly afraid. I knew Deidara had a serious temper, I'd seen it from a distance often enough, but he'd never lost it with me before. "Kami, I am _so sick _of hearing you talk about that... _ass _like he's the only guy you'll ever care about!"

"...What?" For some reason I was expecting that to come out of my mouth with some force, but it sounded like a whisper.

Deidara just stood there for a moment, breathing heavily. "Screw this." He muttered, before turning around abruptly and walking away.

I watched as he left the room, the door swinging silently shut behind him.

/\/\/\/\

"So what the hell was that about?" I asked Kiba's ceiling after retelling the whole story.

"I could tell you, but you wouldn't want to hear it."

I chucked a pillow at him, "He's never yelled at me like that. Other people, frequently. What was it about that that got him so worked up?"

"Ino, do you have any idea how dense you're being?"

I threw another pillow and sat up. "He doesn't like me."

"The fact that you instantly knew what I was saying only proves my point. But how can you be so sure?"

"He just called me a disloyal, conceited bitch." I pointed out.

"He was pissed off."

"Look, how would you know anyway? When have you seen any evidence that he likes me?"

"At the hospital," Kiba promptly replied, "He was being really sweet to you then. Mostly when you were unconscious, but still..."

Aha! an excellent chance for a change of subject. "Actually, on that point, I never thanked you properly for looking after me then."

"Aw, it's no problem."

"Seriously, I appreciated it. Granted I wasn't awake for most of it, but I remembered bits and pieces. Like you carrying me to the car, and holding my hand while they glued my head back together."

Kiba frowned, then his face broke into a self-satisfied grin.

"What?"

"You just gave me the ultimate evidence." I raised an eyebrow at him, "Ino, think back. I was outside calling your mum when they glued your head."

"Oh, but..." _the only other person there was..._ "Oh."

"Oh indeed." Kiba said smugly.

I thought for a moment, not entirely sure what to make of this new information. I felt strangely pleased by the idea that Deidara had been caught out being unexpectedly sweet. "Well, okay. If he liked me, and that's still an 'if' so don't get too ahead of yourself, why didn't he say anything?"

"Um, hello? He thought – and still thinks I expect – that you were totally into Shikamaru."

"Well, in my defense, I totally was."

"Good for you. Are you still?"

"Uh..." I considered the question, "I don't know?"

"Helpful." Kiba deadpanned.

Since I'd run out of pillows, I was forced to chuck the duvet at him. Which is a lot harder than it might sound. "You're supposed to tell me what to do!" I complained.

Shoving the duvet of himself with a lot less effort than it had taken for me to throw it, Kiba let out an exasperated sigh. "Think about it. Figure out who you like and don't like – if you even like either of them any more – and then you can decide what to do."

/\/\/\/\

I'd been following Kiba's instructions, 'thinking about it', for the last hour and a half and I still hadn't come to any conclusions. I was almost certain that I wasn't over Shikamaru yet. I still relived the moment of walking in on him and Temari whenever one of their names were mentioned. But whenever that happened I went straight into the memory of Deidara sitting with me in the garden after I walked in on them, his grin a flash of light in the dark as he asked me what was wrong.

On the one hand I still found myself staring at Shikamaru during art lessons. On the other hand whenever I heard the art room door open and spun round to see who it was, it definitely wasn't Shikamaru I was looking for. I thought about how natural it felt to tell him my secrets, and how much I wanted to know his in return.

But!

What if the fact that I thought he might like me influenced me to think I might like him? You can't force yourself to feel something, I accepted that, but you can trick yourself into _thinking_ you feel something. Mum knocked at my bedroom door.

"Enter."

"I was just coming in to say goodnight. I'm going to bed."

"Cool. Uh, before you go... how can you tell if you like someone?"

Mum came in and sat down on the bed, "Well..." She thought for a moment, "If you can't stop thinking about them, if you get butterflies when you see them, if you look for them all the time and hope that they spot you too. If you look for the little acknowledgments. If you find yourself altering your routine, hoping to accidentally-on-purpose bump into them." I frowned, trying to do a mental checklist. "Having boy problems?"

"Kind of." I sighed.

"Do you want to share?" She smiled, "I may be old but I do just about remember being your age and trying to understand guys."

"Okay, well, you already knew I liked Shikamaru." She nodded, "Well, now I'm thinking that... this other guy might like me. Now, I know I still sort of like Shikamaru, although I'm not sure how much, but I'm trying to figure out if I actually like this other guy. And if I do, what to do about it."

"Could I hazard a guess as to the identity of 'this other guy'?"

"Go on..."

"Deidara, by any chance?"

I laughed sheepishly, "Good spot, mum."

"He likes you then?"

"I'm thinking... maybe. But do I like him?"

Mum laughed, "Ino, honey, you're the only one who can answer that question."

"Well thanks a bunch for your help."

Another laugh, "You'll figure it out. See how you feel when you next see him."

"Well, thanks. Genuinely that time. G'night mum."

"Night Ino."

/\/\/\/\

"Sakura. Hi. I need to talk to you." I could understand her slight look of alarm, I hadn't even let her sit down before blurting it out, but it was urgent. I needed a third opinion.

"Okay, sure. What's up?"

The story took only five minutes to run through, from Shikamaru's inspection of my pictures and Deidara biting my head off to mum's very limited advice last night, and Sakura was looking a little dazed by the end of it. "So what do you think I should do?" I finished, and she frowned.

"I thought you liked Deidara since ages ago. And I _knew_ he liked you."

"To the first part, why? To the second part, this really isn't the time for 'I told you so'. I'm seeing him in art in two and a half hours! And also, are we not worrying about the Shikamaru thing?"

"Okay, okay, calm down. I don't think we need to worry about Shikamaru – I'm pretty sure that he'll follow your lead on this. If you pretend it didn't happen, so will he. And I'm not really sure why I thought you liked him, you just seemed to give off that vibe."

"Really helpful. Thanks Sak. No really, that's spectacular."

"Whoa, someone's stressed today!" Sakura teased, "But okay, in addition to the 'vibes', recently you've had Deidara mentionitis." Something in my facial expression must have given away how completely unimpressed I was with that. She explained, "Whenever you're talking to Hinata or me you mention him at least once a minute. Something he said, something he did, something you heard about him, something you wanted to know about him, there has been no subject over the past few days that you couldn't somehow link back to your blonde-haired boy."

"For real? Why didn't anybody tell me!" I was horrified at the idea that I'd been so irritating.

"Because it was funny. We couldn't believe that you hadn't spotted it yourself." She could tell that I wasn't particularly pleased with that as an answer and added, "And maybe once a minute is a bit of an exaggeration."

"So does that mean I like him?"

"Jeez, why is this so complicated for you? Anyone would have thought you'd never had a crush before!"

"Well apart from Shikamaru I kind of haven't!" Sakura looked gobsmacked and I immediately felt like some kind of freak. "What is it? Why are you looking at me like that?"

"You haven't... are you joking?"

"Uh, Nope."

"Ever had a boyfriend?"

I cringed, "Not exactly. I've kissed guys before, at clubs and stuff, but they'd get all grabby and I had to knock some sense into them. The party atmosphere isn't really... uh... conducive to starting relationships."

"And you didn't have a single crush? Even at your school?"

"Not really, no. I mean, the guys at my old school were idiots. With the exception of Kiba, and we're like family."

Sakura shook her head sorrowfully, "No wonder all of this is so difficult for you."

Oh for goodness' sake. "Quit with the pity and give me some answers already."

"I think you should... see how things go in art today. See who you're more drawn to. And also, see if Deidara tries to speak to you or get your attention in any way."

A flash of anxiety ran down my spine, "What if he doesn't?" I asked urgently.

"Huh?"

"Well, he seemed really pissed off yesterday. What if he used to like me but now he doesn't?" Great, another pity-look.

"Ino, the very fact that you're so worried about it is a _slight_ clue that you like the guy."

"Stop patronizing me." I said sulkily, "I'm new to all this, remember?"

"I remember alright. Come on, oyster card out, we're gonna need to talk strategy on the bus." Sakura grinned, "I couldn't get you with Shikamaru, but I'm determined to have more success this time!"

"But what if I don't like him?" I wailed. "Success has many definitions."

Sakura said confidently, "If I get you to figure out how you feel about the guy without either of us having a mental breakdown, I'm counting that as success."

What did I ever do without her?

"Of course, I still think that you like him." She said under her breath, laughing as I turned a death-glare on her. "Just saying!"


	27. Chapter 27

_**Hey all! Sorry this update isn't quite as prompt as the last few have been, my internet connection has decided to play up over the last week. I don't know **_**_what the reason is but I'll see if I can sort it out. In the meantime if chapters are a little slow, that's why. Thank you anyone and everyone reading this, especially my reviewers of course! Devil'sLittleBabyGirl, Poet Bucky, demon lilith, missmridvika, Aiko of the Akatsuki and Miss Hydrangea. I hope you all enjoy the chapter!_**

**_Disclaimer:_**

**_I claim no ownership._**

**Study In Contrasts  
**

The door to the art classroom loomed in front of me, taking on almost mythical proportions in my mind. It was like one of those game shows, _when you pass through that door you will have two hours to figure out who you like and how much. Three... two... one..._

"Not going in, hm?"

I turned around with a start to see Deidara, viewing me with a guarded expression.

"Why, aren't you?"

The look he shot me was indecipherable and I felt myself tense with sudden nervousness. Sakura and I had talked about various things I could say, why was my mind suddenly blank? After a couple of moments Deidara turned to the door. He glanced at me out of the corner of his eye, then opened the door and walked through.

Steeling myself, I followed.

As I'd expected my attention was pretty much entirely focused on a certain blond sculptor, leaving a little for wondering whether Shikamaru was still thinking about my stupid pictures, a little for trying to remember Sakura's advice and absolutely none for my work.

Much as I was desperate to look over at Shikamaru to see whether he was paying any attention to me, I didn't want him to see me looking and think I was thinking about him. Which I was.

And although I wanted to avoid looking at Deidara until I knew what my plan of action was, I couldn't help glancing up every so often to see if he was thinking of flicking some clay at me. Which he wasn't.

Pressure to figure out my feelings weighed down on me like a lead elephant, or something equally heavy and out of place. See, I've never been the type to do much self-analysis, it always struck me as a bit of a waste of time. 'If you don't know what you're feeling, you're probably not feeling anything', I think I actually said that once. I should have known it would come back to haunt me.

It was the longest art lesson of my life, not least because I didn't have a single small projectile exchange with Deidara. At the end of the two hours he got up quickly and left the room without a backwards glance.

Probably a good thing to be honest, or he might have caught me staring after him like some kind of love-starved puppy.

_It's probably the abrupt drop in the amount of attention you're getting that makes you care so much_, I reminded myself as I walked up to the common room. _It feels like a rejection, that's all_.

Sakura glanced as me as I sat down next to her on our group's favourite sofa. Sasuke, on her other side, glared at me briefly and then studiously ignored my presence, while everybody else offered a nod or wave.

Naruto was in the middle of some story about ramen, he'd had some the other day that was either the most expensive or the least exciting he'd ever tried – I can't remember, I wasn't paying a lot of attention.

It might have been easier to listen to the story if Sakura hadn't been nudging me in the ribs with her elbow and sending me significant glances. After about half a minute I'd had enough.

"I need the loo." I announced suddenly, standing up.

"You know what? Me too." Sakura agreed, "Hinata?"

Transfixed by Naruto's story, Hinata jolted into awareness again. "Sorry?"

"Hinata, do you need to come with us to... do your makeup or something?" Sakura was trying to make it as easy as possible, but Hinata was still too dazed by being within a meter of her crush to be any good at picking up signals.

"Uh..."

I gave up. "You do," I said, grabbing her by the arm and hauling her to her feet, "Trust me on this."

/\/\/\/\

I perched on one of the sinks, Hinata leaned against a stall door and Sakura paced.

"I don't like it." I said firmly.

"What?" Hinata looked confused.

"I don't like liking him. It's too sudden."

"Yeah. Sudden is right. It's only taken you a couple of weeks to realize that you like him. Hey – maybe if we give you a year you could actually come to terms with him liking you back!"

I ran the cold tap and flicked some water at Sakura. "You know what? I don't much appreciate your sarcasm."

"So... do you still like Shikamaru?" Hinata asked timidly.

"Oh, she does." Sakura answered for me, "But she _lurves _Deidara."

"Don't make me water you again." I threatened.

"Okay, not love. She's obsessed with him though."

Sakura got a handful of water this time.

"Delightful," she commented, "I've been promoted."

Hinata looked like she didn't see where the problem was. "Ino, why don't you just ask him out?"

I hung my head, "I don't think he likes me any more."

"What, just because he was off with you today?"

I treated Sakura to a mock glare, "I was talking to Hinata."

"Doesn't mean I can't contribute."

"Yes, because he was off with me today. He didn't look at me once all lesson. That's two hours!" There was a pause, and then I added dismally, "I know, because I didn't stop looking at him. I'm pathetic."

"No!" Hinata objected, at the same time that Sakura shrugged and said "Well, maybe a little."

"Oh forget this." I said, now thoroughly depressed. "I'm going to go eat lunch." Hinata went to comfort me, but we were both halted by a firm command from Sakura.

"Wait." She ordered, and we did. "Ino, you'll probably see him in art club today, right?"

"Possibly."

"You have to talk to him."

I frowned, "What about?"

"Anything. I don't care. The point is that you have to try to initiate a conversation."

"I don't know..."

"Do you want to get together with this guy or not?" Sakura asked incredulously.

"Hold it! I don't even know for sure that I like him!" Even Hinata sighed at that. "No, really. I mean, what if it's just that I miss the attention?"

Sakura came very close to me, her eyes narrowed menacingly. "If you try to deny the obvious any longer," she growled "I swear to Kami I'll ask him out on your behalf in front of all his friends, whether you like it or not."

Well, you don't get much more persuasive than that.

/\/\/\/\

I walked past the door to the art room four times before actually going in. I hadn't actually been sure that Deidara would be there after his apparent reluctance to go to the actual lesson, but he was at his usual bench with his back to the door. Pausing in the doorway I noticed that Shikamaru actually wasn't there. My eyes skipped back to Deidara to find that... he still wasn't looking at me.

I dropped into my usual seat with a barely audible sigh and got my art work out. I tried to lose myself in the painting, I really did, but I kept feeling compelled to look up and check whether I was getting any attention from the sculpting bench.

_You've over-thought this, it's quite clear, and now you can't think of anything else. _I scolded myself.

Even so, surely just one more glance up couldn't hurt?

Apparently it could, actually. This time when I looked up at Deidara our eyes met. Did I take the opportunity to smile? Nod, even? Any kind of signal at all? No. I just dropped my eyes to the desk, face burning.

Idiot.

How on earth was I planning on starting up some kind of conversation if I couldn't even make eye contact with the guy? What kind of socially unaware muppet had I turned into? Luckily I wasn't far enough gone to actually bang my head repeatedly on the table, but I can promise you this: I was doing it internally.

I dabbed feebly at my work with a paintbrush, not even daring to look up anymore in case I made a moron out of myself again. At least I'd made some progress on my picture – I'd actually finished the one of Sakura and Sasuke from my perspective, making Sakura appear scared, flinching back from Sasuke who was clearly angry. I did actually have Kiba and Hinata in the picture too, but I wasn't planning on showing their points of view too.

"Okay students," Kakashi called out eventually, "clear out. End of art club. Go home."

I tried to put my pictures back in my art folder as quickly as possible, hoping that if I was fast enough I'd be able to catch Deidara before he left and complete Sakura's conversation challenge. The corner of one of my pictures was getting caught on the edge of the folder and I was about to lose all patience and just shove the damn thing in when a hand on my arm stopped me. There was a feeling like a jolt of electricity, only nicer, and I looked up.

"I thought I told you to be careful with those, hm?"

Deidara took over the business of packing away the pictures, then held the folder out to me with a strange expression on his face.

For a moment, a single moment, we were both holding on to the folder, and I searched desperately for something to say. Something. Anything in fact! Anything that would sound vaguely intelligent! Forget vaguely intelligent, anything at all would be good!

Then Deidara let go of my art folder and suddenly a memory from the day before yesterday filtered through: an unanswered text message with an unanswered question. I went for it.

"My parents split up when I was ten." I said quickly, "How often do you see your mum?"

Surprise flashed in his eyes.

"Once a month, yeah." He replied carefully.

There was a moment of silence, and I was grimly pleased to discover that I was, in fact, capable of making and keeping eye contact with Deidara. Even if I was fairly sure that I was blushing. A lot.

"It's your turn to ask a question." I commented, and was rewarded with a slight grin.

"I want to come up with a good one, hn."

Taking a deep breath I sat back down at the desk, kicking a chair under the table at Deidara. He looked at it, then at me, then pointedly at Kakashi who was watching us with interest.

"Oh... uh... shall I just... leave the key with you guys? You can lock up , right? Great. Bye!" Kakashi scarpered and Deidara sat down.

"I forgot he was there."

"I didn't, yeah. Sorry for yelling at you yesterday."

"The yelling wasn't the problem. The problem was that what you were yelling was wrong. But it's okay, I'm over it." I have no idea what part of my brain was coming up with what I was saying, but since it was allowing me to talk like a normal human being I wasn't planning on taking over any time soon.

Deidara leaned forward, "What part of it was wrong, hmm?"

There was an answer on the tip of my tongue, but I hesitated. If I said what I was about to say it would mean admitting that Sakura and Hinata were right.

_If you deny the obvious any longer..._ Sakura had said. Obvious to her, maybe, but how could I be sure? It might seem like it was a stupid thing to be worrying about still but the last thing I wanted to do was make him think I liked him and then for it to turn out later that I didn't. That would be completely unfair to him. And I didn't think I could stand the idea of possibly causing him any kind of pain... hang on.

I looked at Deidara again. He was frowning slightly, focused on whatever it was that I was about to come out with. His hands were on the table, palms down, and I was struck with the memory of how it felt to have my hand in his – even semi-conscious. I wanted to feel that again.

_Oh... Obvious... _I grinned despite myself. _I see._

"All of it." I replied firmly. "Especially that bit about Shikamaru being the only ass I'll ever care about, or whatever it was you said."

"I see..." He said slowly, a smirk creeping it's way across his face, "Did you happen to have another ass in mind, yeah?"

"Maybe. Is that going to be your question then?" Deidara nodded seriously and I leaned forward too, so that my mouth was near his ear when I answered in as confident a voice as I could under the circumstances. "Yes. Just the one. You."

I heard him laugh softly, and felt as his head shifted to rest on my shoulder, his hair brushing my neck.

We just sat there for a moment, then I murmured, "So where are we now?"

"Hmm?" He sat back a little to look me in the eyes.

"Well, are we going out now?"

Deidara laughed again, "I don't know, hn. Why don't you tell me?"

I whacked his arm lightly, partly just to enjoy that little static shock feeling that came with touching him, "Don't you have to actually ask me out to make it official?"

"Fine." He stood up and cleared his throat dramatically, glaring at me down his nose when I giggled. "Ino, will you go out with me, yeah?"

Tilting my head to one side, I pretended to think about it. "Oh alright then."

"That's what I thought, hn." He looked around the art room, staring intently at the clock.

"What are you doing?" I asked, standing up and moving round the desk so that I could see what was so interesting.

"Just fixing the time in my mind so that it can be put on the _official _records, yeah." He teased. "At seven minutes past four on Friday the ninth of October..."

"Shush." I laughed, "I was just asking, jeez..."

He smiled, lifting a hand to touch my hair lightly. "It was cute, hn. And while we're on the practicalities, do you want to announce it to the friends or just let them find out on their own, hm?"

"I'm going to have to tell some of my friends. As soon as I turn my phone on I'll probably have at least one message from Sakura asking if I finally had the guts to say something."

"Ditto on Sasori, hn." Deidara admitted, and I looked up at him, surprised. "He gave me a talking to this afternoon, said that if I didn't do something and stop complaining he'd just come out and tell you that I liked you, yeah."

"Sakura said almost exactly that earlier today. Do you think best friends are given some kind of manual with instructions for situations like this?"

"Who knows? Hn." He leaned down suddenly to kiss me, quickly, gently, on the lips. I swear, it was the softest thing I'd ever felt in my life. "Do you want the official time of that too, yeah?" He asked with a grin.

"Go on then."

"Four-oh-nine."

Deidara pressed a light kiss to my forehead, then the corner of my eye, my earlobe, my neck, all the while whispering against my skin.

"Four-oh-nine and four seconds, four-oh-nine and ten seconds, four-oh-nine and seventeen seconds, four-oh-nine and twenty-five seconds."

"You're being silly." I reprimanded breathlessly, and I felt rather than heard him laugh.

He drew back, taking in my flushed skin and slight difficulty breathing. "Is this new to you, hm?"

I shook my head, "Not exactly... but you're the first person to kiss me like that." He looked absurdly pleased with himself. Leaning into him, feeling one of his arms come up to wrap gently around my shoulders, I half wondered if this was some kind of dream. Could it really be so easy?

I must have said that last bit out loud because Deidara chuckled into my hair. "That was far from easy, hn."

I had to turn my head to the side so that I wouldn't be talking into his shirt, "How so?"

"First off I had to stop you from getting personally on the bad side of the Akatsuki, yeah-"

"Wait, so when did you start liking me?"

Deidara let out a short breath, narrowing his eyes as he considered the question.

"Well, I found you interesting from our first conversation, hm. But I freaked out when you got hurt at that party, and that was when I realized how much I liked you. Then you had that little rant about how much you hated me, which was quite annoying, hn... but it did mean that you'd noticed me, and remembered a lot of our conversations, so I proposed that we be friends. But then, that was when it was confirmed that you had a crush on Shikamaru, so it was a bit like one step forward, two steps back, yeah. At least he wasn't available, so he was less competition and more an obstacle. The next week was the most frustrating, it seemed like every time I thought I might have a chance you'd bring him into the conversation. Which is why I, uh," he scratched his ear ashamedly, "got so mad at you. Yeah. And the rest, as they say, happened just a minute ago."

Smiling, I slipped my arms loosely round his waist. "You're right. That doesn't sound easy."

"I guess that means you didn't have quite the same amount of stress, hn." Deidara was grinning, I could hear it in his voice, but I was worried that it sounded like I just didn't like him as much.

"I didn't really realize for a long time that I liked you." I confessed.

"How flattering, hm."

"But I did like you!" I leaned back, still with my arms looped around him, to look him in the eyes so he knew I was serious. "Sakura and Hinata saw the signs ages ago, apparently. I didn't want to like you because I thought it would be like betraying my friends. You know, because of the Akatsuki not liking them. It's just, as I said to Sakura, I'm a bit of an amateur at this whole having-crushes thing. If I look back now I can see all the evidence myself. Oh, and then when you shouted at me yesterday and everyone was telling me that you clearly liked me I was stressing out because I didn't know if I still liked Shikamaru and I, uh, still wasn't fully aware that I liked you..."

"So when _were _you fully aware, yeah?"

"It properly sank in about ten minutes ago." I replied sheepishly. "But don't go thinking that it means I don't like you. Because I do."

"And I like you too, hn."

"Well isn't that convenient!" I grinned up at Deidara and he kissed me on the forehead again.

"Come on, yeah. We need to lock up and hand the art room key in."

I grabbed my art folder and school bag as Deidara picked up the key and left, holding the door open until I was through and locking it behind us. And he held my hand while we walked to reception to dump Kakashi's key. I don't remember the last time such a small thing made me so deliriously happy.

/\/\/\/\

I had been right about my text prediction: I'd turned my mobile on on the bus to discover a message from Sakura. "Text me as soon as you're out. You'd better have good news."

I called her straight away.

"Ino? Tell me you talked to him."

"I talked to him."

"Fantastic! And?"

"We're going out. Officially." Just saying it made me smile uncontrollably. Sakura whooped on the other end of the phone.

"You have to come round. Can you come for dinner?"

"I'll check with my mum and text you back."

I hung up and wrote a message to mum, "Can I go to Sakura's?"

The reply came a moment later, "Of course. Now?"

"I think so. Can I stay for dinner?" My thumb was starting to hurt – this was the trouble with texting.

"Yes you can. Back by nine, if possible."

Final text! Thank goodness. I made it as short as I could, "With you in a min." and sent it off to Sakura.

The bus felt like it was going slower than ketchup down sandpaper, slower than a tortoise through treacle, slower than snails going the wrong way on a travellator. Slow enough, at any rate, for me to come up with a lot of slightly bizarre similes about how very, very slow it was.

I hopped off at my usual stop and literally ran to Sakura's house, ringing the doorbell eagerly.

Sakura threw the door open and hugged me. "You did it! You did it! High-freaking-five!" We slapped hands and burst out laughing, rushing upstairs to her room.

"Don't give me all the details just yet." Sakura said as she sat down at one end of her bed, "Hinata will be here in ten minutes. That way you don't have to go through it twice."

"I'd happily go through it as many times as you like." I settled myself at the opposite end, "I can't think about anyone..." I blushed, "I mean, any_thing _else!"

"Okay, answer some quick questions then." I nodded, "Are you sure you like him now?"

"Very."

"Finally. And did you guys arrange a time to meet up outside of school?"

"No..." I frowned.

"Don't worry. Did he kiss you?"

The fact that all the blood in my body seemed to rush to my face at once gave Sakura her answer.

"Was it good?" I raised my eyebrows at her, a little shocked, and she laughed, "Ino, I never knew you were such a prude!"

"I'm not!" I objected, "I just thought you were! Yes it was good, it was amazing."

"Tell me! Tell me!"

"Nuh-uh." I poked my tongue out at her, "Gotta wait till Hinata gets here."

We passed the time by flicking through a couple of magazines Sakura had lying around, reading out bits from the 'embarrassing stories' sections and checking the outdated horoscopes. When Hinata eventually showed up Sakura practically dragged the poor girl upstairs and sat her down on the bed with us, turning to me with an expectant expression.

"Go on. Start."

Grinning, I did as I was told. I went through the whole story – and it took about twenty minutes what with having to fend off constant interruptions.

Hinata sighed wistfully when I described how Deidara stopped me from damaging my pictures.

Sakura giggled at Kakashi's dismissal from his own classroom.

They both laughed and cheered, Sakura even congratulating me on finally learning how to figure out my own feelings, when I told them how I realized that I did in fact have a crush on Deidara, and then "aww"ed together over his reaction.

And then Sakura whacked her forehead with her palm when I told them about asking whether we were officially going out.

"You're supposed to just know that." She groaned, and I laughed.

"Well obviously I have a problem with 'just knowing'! And besides," I felt my mouth stretch into another smile, "he said it was cute."

The next thing that got a big reaction was the description of the kisses. Which Hinata listened to wide-eyed and Sakura asked me to repeat. Twice.

After that I could get quickly through the rest of the story, finishing with our hand-in-hand trip to reception.

"Wow." Hinata breathed, "That's so sweet..."

"I never knew he had it in him." Sakura commented wryly.

"Well he is an artist." I offered by way of a semi-serious explanation, "Aren't they all supposed to be sensitive souls?"

"Most of them, yeah. But Deidara likes to smash stuff."

"That's because he believes that true beauty is fleeting. Only something impermanent can be considered art. I think he smashes things he appreciates as art, things he finds beautiful. It's a compliment, kind of."

"Let's hope that philosophy of his doesn't extend to people." Sakura said darkly.

Sakura and I exchanged subtle looks and then turned to Hinata, who was looking at me with undisguised terror.

"Hinata," I said gently, "joke."

"... oh."

"Girls!" Sakura's mum called from downstairs, "Dinner!"

The three of us got up, Sakura and I giggling, Hinata still recovering from our little joke.

_Life _I thought giddily,_ doesn't get much better than this._


	28. Chapter 28

_**Next chapter! Yay! It's a long one, 12 pages on OpenOffice, and it took me flipping ages to finish! Thanks readers, whoever you may be, and reviewers of course! Thank you Ino2613, first time reviewer, and my usual outpouring of gratitude to my amazing regular reviewers. That means all of you; Poet Bucky, demon lilith, missmridvika, Aiko of the Akatsuki, Miss Hydrangea and Devil'sLittleBabyGirl. I love hearing from all of you!**_

_**Disclaimer:**_

_**Naruto doesn't in any way, shape or form belong to me. If only!**_

**Study In Contrasts  
**

I got home at twenty to nine, and when mum asked from the kitchen if I'd had a good day I actually laughed out loud.

She poked her head round the door to the hallway, "Shall I take that as a yes?"

"Yes. You should definitely take that as a yes."

"Ooh, come on! Tell me what happened."

Mum made me a hot chocolate and I told her the story, skipping the section with the kisses. There's a limit to mother-daughter sharing.

"Ino, that's fantastic!" her obvious excitement made me laugh again.

"I can't quite believe it actually happened, I keep feeling like I'll wake up in the morning and I'll have imagined the whole thing!"

Smiling, mum took my now empty mug over to the sink. "Are you going to meet up with him this weekend?"

"I don't know. We didn't arrange anything, but he has my number. Besides, I'm seeing dad tomorrow, aren't I?"

"Well remembered." she moved over to the memo pad by the phone, "He called here earlier actually... he wants to meet you here at half twelve and take you out for lunch. Is that okay?"

"Fine, fine." I stood up, barely listening. "I'll see him then. I'm going to go up to my room I think."

"Alright. Sleep well!"

Already more than halfway down the hallway I called out a quick "You too!" And ran up the stairs, flinging myself down on my bed and grinning like a maniac at the ceiling.

I got up again after a moment to change into pyjamas and do some sketching. I was already thinking about what perspective pictures I'd do once I was done with the kitchen scene. I was thinking a more abstract one this time, one that hadn't actually happened, with me, Shikamaru and Deidara.

Sketching the rough layout of the picture, I heard my phone go off downstairs. I forced myself to walk at a normal speed, not leap down the staircase and not tear my bag open like a wild animal.

_It's probably not from him_. I reminded myself.

_One new message..._

"Thinking of you.

-Deidara"

Beaming, I took the phone back up to my room. I know the rules about texting, you're supposed to wait a while so it doesn't look like you were just sitting by your mobile hoping for a message. I managed to hold off for a whole thirty minutes before typing a reply.

"Snap =] watcha up to?

-Ino"

I got a reply less than two minutes later.

"Texting you and instant-messaging Sasori. That's all my multitasking abilities stretch to. You?"

"You're doing better than most guys I know! I'm just sketching."

I glanced at the time quickly; ten to ten. Would mum still be up? I went and knocked on her bedroom door, hearing my text alert go off again.

"Mum?"

"Yes?"

"Can I use the computer in the study?"

She came to her door, opening it to look at me. "What for? It's pretty late."

"But it is also Friday night. No school tomorrow." I countered.

"True. What do you want to use it for?"

"Instant messaging friends."

Mum smiled knowingly at me. "Ah. I see. Go on then, and try to be in bed before midnight."

I nodded obediently and went to fetch the ladder. See, our study is in the loft. It's nice – we have a proper skylight up there and a wooden floor and rugs and it's tall enough to stand up in – but mum decided it was too expensive to do a full conversion with stairs. So the only way up to the study is by getting the collapsible ladder out of the cupboard under the stairs, dragging it up to the first floor and extending it so that it's propped up against the trapdoor, climbing your way up to the rickety top, shoving the impractically heavy square of wood out of the way and hauling yourself through the remaining hole in the ceiling.

Since it was done I've maintained that the main reason the study is barely ever used is that it's physically impossible to get up there while holding snacks or a drink. And who wants to work without conveniently placed munchies?

Of course, mum disagreed from the offset. She says she always preferred to print pages out to edit them, which she does at work, because proof-reading on a computer screen gives her a headache. And dad never did any work anyway, so he was only seen making the epic voyage to the loft when he wanted to get away from mum for a while. This is why my most vivid memories associated with the study-in-the-sky are of sitting cross-legged on the floor while dad grumbled about how little freedom he had to be himself. And consequently why I'd tended to avoid the place since he'd left.

I read Deidara's latest message, "I aim to impress. Sketching for fun or sketching for coursework?" and replied with, "Congrats then – you achieved your goal =P. And all sketching is fun, whether it's for school or not! By the way, I have access to a computer for ten minutes if you want to save some credit."

I was aware that this was probably against the strict rules of the game, playing hard to get etc, but I tried to do damage limitation by specifying a short amount of time and suggesting that it was a decision based more on economic principles than the fact that I just wanted to feel like I was actually talking to him.

Someone hadn't shared these rules with Deidara, or maybe they had and he'd just set fire to them, because he replied almost instantly with "Fantastic! It's more like actual conversation that way. I'm on msn: ."

With that encouragement I began the intensive preparations for journeying to the study. A jacket, since it can be cold at high altitudes, a bar of chocolate in one pocket in case I got tired or hungry during the ascent and my mobile so that I could ring for help if things got really dire. Fully prepared, I fetched the ladder from downstairs.

The computer, once I was up there, took a minute or two to turn on. I looked around the room while I was waiting – it looked exactly the same. Not too dusty, so it clearly had been used or at least cleaned fairly regularly, but not cluttered like the rest of the house. It looked like a room from a show house.

Eventually the computer was ready to go. We didn't have one of those fancy set-ups where every member of the family has a different profile, there was no point since mum was pretty much the only person who used it. The other thing the family shared was the hotmail account. This might sound bizarre, but I hadn't ever used it. Mum made a big deal when she set it up a few years ago about me being free to use it whenever – I think she was trying to prove how much she trusted me or something.

She downloaded msn and talked my ear off for a week and a half about how good it would be for chatting with my friends. I preferred to use my mobile, aware that some conversations were saved when you chatted using msn and not really wanting mum to have that insight into my social life, so I just blanked her until she got bored.

Since she was still using it for work stuff the account was still active, and I signed into windows live messenger and added Deidara as a contact.

His screen name was just 'geijutsu', his display pic a photo of a clay bird. I read the personal message: 'Art is a moment's beauty ... fragile ... fleeting …' the whole thing was so him. Which was, I suppose, the whole point.

_Geijutsu: _Hey there

_Yamanaka: _Hi. Cool screen name you've got there.

_Geijutsu: _Thanks – it's Japanese for art.

_Yamanaka: _Probably should have guessed that. You still chatting with Sasori?

_Geijutsu: _Nope. Just you right now.

_Yamanaka: _I feel truly honored. :P

_Geijutsu: _So you should!

I laughed, but cut myself off when I realized how weird it sounded in the empty room, and unwrapped the chocolate bar, nibbling on it.

_Yamanaka: _Are you at home or at Pein's place?

There was a long pause when the bar at the bottom of the screen informed me that _Geijutsu is writing a message... _and then eventually,

_Geijutsu: _Pein's still.

_Yamanaka: _You okay?

_Geijutsu: _More than okay. Don't go worrying about me.

_Yamanaka: _I'll try not to. No promises though :P

There was another pause, although this time neither of us were typing.

_Geijutsu: _Can I see you this weekend?

What were the rules on that again? I thought I remembered reading something about turning down the first two dates and postponing the third, but that suddenly seemed completely ridiculous.

_Yamanaka: _When are you free?

_Geijutsu: _When are you busy?

Damn msn and the lack of context. Was he seriously asking for my schedule or trying to imply that I didn't have a social life? Ah well. If in doubt: ask.

_Yamanaka: _Are you trying to imply that I don't have a social life? :P

_Geijutsu: _No! I was just trying to ask what your schedule was going to be.

Heh.

_Yamanaka: _I'm meeting my dad for lunch tomorrow, but I guess I'll be free from around four. And as far as I'm aware I'm not doing anything Sunday.

_Geijutsu: _Can I pick you up from your place at five?

_Yamanaka: _Okay. At least, I think that'll be fine. What will we be doing?

_Geijutsu: _Not sure yet. But I'll get you back by eight.

_Yamanaka: _Sounds good. I gotta go now though.

_Geijutsu: _Okay.

_Geijutsu is writing a message... Geijutsu is writing a message... Geijutsu is writing-_

_Geijutsu: _Sleep well.

_Yamanaka: _Same to you :)

I signed out and sat back, just looking at the computer. I'd just been asked out on my first date. Dazed, I turned off the computer and clambered down the ladder to the safety of the hallway. The ladder was left to one side, leaning against a wall, and I went back to my room and got into bed.

/\/\/\/\

At breakfast the next morning I asked mum if she'd mind me going out again after my meeting with dad.

"I'll be back by eight, apparently."

"Meeting Deidara?"

"Yeah. I'm not sure where we're going, he didn't know himself, but he wants to meet me here at five. Actually... that reminds me. Would it be okay if I got..." I hesitated, frowning. I'd almost said 'Temari' there for a moment, "Uh... Sakura round for when I get back from lunch with dad?"

Mum nodded, smiling.

"Cool. Now I have to go look through my wardrobe."

Today I wanted to dress slightly more carefully than I had to meet dad two weeks ago. Last time, in my defense, I had just come out of hospital with a broken head. But still.

I started a bath running, when I have the luxury of time I prefer baths to showers, and then went back to pick out some potential outfits. I also sent a text to Sakura:

"Do you think you could come round for about four? I have a date with Deidara and I'm going to want fashion help.

-Ino"

I left my phone in my room and sank into the bath with a sigh of relief. Is there any nicer feeling than being in warm water? I remembered Deidara holding my hand the day before and smiled to myself, relaxing even more. The answer to that would have to be yes.

I washed my hair carefully, taking time to make sure it was done right and even using a teeny tiny bit of mum's nice shampoo. Once my hair was rinsed clean I got out and wrapped a towel around myself, heading back to my room to brush my hair and start drying it.

Various items of clothing were spread out on my bed, and I started thinking about what went with what while my hair was starting to dry. My mobile played it's little text alert tune and I checked it out,

"Yeah, I think I can make it. Go you!! You'll have to tell me how that came about.

-Sakura"

Fantastic, that was one weight of my mind. I can dress myself fine, don't get me wrong, but whenever it's important I end up second-guessing myself into bizarre combinations of clothes. I don't know what it is, but the pressure just gets to me! I felt a little sad as I remembered how Temari used to be my first port of call in that sort of instance.

Which reminded me, I really had to do something about the situation with her. Temari had been one of my best friends, always ready to give me an honest opinion, always up for a fun night out. Admittedly I hadn't given our ex-friendship a lot of thought since yesterday's drama, but I was starting to get to the point where I felt I had to do something. I wasn't ready to just let her go over some stupid lie of Kin's.

Then the clock on my phone caught my attention: ten to twelve. I had just over half an hour left till dad was arriving. Planning would have to come later, the priority was making myself look presentable! Taking my hair out of the towel to brush it, again, I decided on my denim skirt and a fairly simple orange T-shirt. The look I was going for was casual but not sloppy. Sorted and together, but not a neat-freak. I pulled my hair into a high ponytail, leaving bangs to cover the right side of my face.

Orange converses completed the look, and I checked myself in the mirror, slipping a clip in my hair and smoothing out my skirt. I was more nervous about this meeting with my dad than the last, mostly because I was determined not to talk about anything about him and mum. This time I wanted to just chat, preferably solely about what was happening now rather than what happened in the past. It was the only way I was going to get to know him.

On the other hand, I didn't want to tell him about Deidara. After that comment he made about me being 'popular with the boys' I wasn't, weirdly enough, mad keen on letting him know about my first boyfriend, and since I was having trouble thinking about anything else for long periods of time the conversation could be challenging!

Unlike last time, dad was almost twenty minutes late. He knocked at the door and stood there with a wide grin on his face.

"Hey! There's my Ino!"

_Your Ino?_ I thought irritably, but I smiled through my annoyance.

"Hey dad. How's it going?"

"Oh, not bad. You?"

"Fine thanks. Where are we going to eat?"

"I thought we could just walk and talk for a while and then see what we feel like? That old park's nearby isn't it?"

Shrugging on my dark grey denim jacket, the same one I wore at the beginning of the party in fact, I followed dad out the door.

"See you later mum." I called back as I shut the front door behind me.

/\/\/\/\

We walked around the park for over an hour, dad asking me about school and me trying to fish for information about where he was staying and what he was doing. He was being pretty evasive though, and every question I asked him he seemed able to turn around and turn into a new, and completely unrelated, conversation. It took me a little while to even spot that he was doing it, but once I did it was seriously aggravating.

"So, are you staying with friends or do you have a place here now?" I asked at one point.

"Kind of a combination of the two," he replied with a winning smile, "One of the guys I was hanging out with the other day, Genma, as a matter of fact, said that anyone who would willingly live with me would have to be several kinds of insane – and I think my flatmates are agreeing! Do you remember Genma? He was more a friend of mine than he was your mother's so you probably haven't seen much of him. He was asking after you actually. _Do _you remember Genma?"

"Uh, not really. Wait – unless he was the toothpick guy?"

"Yeah! That's the one! He was at your ninth birthday to do magic tricks..."

And there you have it, question deflected.

Eventually it started getting close to two o'clock and dad still hadn't even mentioned where we were going to eat.

"Sorry, dad, what was your plan about lunch?"

"Hm? Oh, hungry are you?"

"Yeah, and I have plans."

His eyebrows shot up gleefully, "With a boy?"

"No. With my friend Sakura. I need to be home by four." Well it was mostly true.

"Well alright then." He grumbled. "We'll find somewhere nice and easy."

Can you guess where we ended up eating? KFC. I dragged dad past it three times, and each time he turned us round so we'd walk past it again. Eventually I just gave in and marched in there, him trailing after me with an ear-to-ear grin. It was greasy, it was gross, but it was quick. By the time we'd got there, eaten, left and made our way back to the house by twenty to four.

"There," he said smugly as I got my keys out, "that wasn't so painful now, was it?"

"No." I didn't elaborate, swinging the door open and turning to say goodbye.

Luckily he didn't seem to spot that I was being short with him. "Bye Ino. Maybe see you next week?" He opened his arms and I just shot him a cynical look.

"Maybe. Bye dad."

I walked in and shut the door behind me. He'd been right I suppose; despite the many little annoyances and his bizarre love of disgusting fast food it had almost been quite a fun few hours. And after all, he was my dad. I went up to my room. Time to start thinking about what to wear to meet Deidara.

/\/\/\/\

Sakura showed up at ten past four, asking me to run through how the 'date' was instigated before she'd help me get ready.

"I definitely approve." She said when I was finished with the story, "He seems to be comfortable with making the first move, which is good." I nodded, beaming. "Now. What have you got clothes-wise?"

Indicating my wardrobe, I stood back to let Sakura investigate. After almost a half hour of trial and error we decided on a short purple dress with a low neckline over a long grey top and black patterned tights. I had a pair of flat suede boots in a sort of light purple/grey colour that tied in nicely, and Sakura finished off by winding a purple ribbon once around my head, tied at the back underneath my, now loose, hair.

We played around with makeup for a little while, adding mascara, eyeliner and the barest hint of lip gloss. I was wondering if Sakura was really all that interested though, she seemed a little distracted.

"You look great." Sakura said, half complimenting me and half congratulating herself.

"Thanks. For saying it, and helping me achieve it!"

Sakura laughed quietly, and I suddenly spotted a sag in her shoulders.

"Sak, you okay?"

She turned her head up, "Yeah, I'm fine. Why?"

"You look... _really _tired."

"Nah, I'm good."

But now that I was actually looking at her I could tell that she wasn't. Her skin was paler than usual, her hair a little flat, her eyes a little dull. Nothing you'd notice in passing, probably, but once you started paying attention they jumped out at you. And was it my imagination or was she a little thinner?

"Seriously, what's up? Are you not sleeping?"

Sakura's eyes flashed with barely suppressed anger and my stomach dropped. "Ino, I said I'm fine. Get over it." Her reaction was enough to confirm it: Sasuke was behind this, one way or another.

A knock at the door downstairs made us both jump a little. I stood hesitantly, "I guess that'll be Deidara."

Sakura checked her watch, "Five minutes early. Not cool, but very sweet."

We walked down together, and I opened the door to see Deidara leaning casually against the door frame.

"Hey Ino, hn." the corner of his mouth quirked up in a smile, "Good to go? Oh," he noticed Sakura behind me. "Hi Sakura."

She nodded a greeting at him and I turned, holding out my arms for a hug goodbye.

"Have a great time Ino." Sakura smiled sincerely at me, all traces of her moment of anger gone.

"I-" Whatever I'd been about to say died on my lips. As Sakura went to return my hug the sleeve of her jumper was pulled up a little to reveal the edge of an ugly bruise on her forearm. "Sakura..." I breathed, horrified. "What did he do to you?"

Her eyes widened in sudden realization and she tugged the sleeve back down, trying anxiously to laugh it off. "No idea what happened there! I guess I must have hit it badly in martial arts or something."

I grabbed her hand, shoving the sleeve up again despite her yelp of protest, "Sakura this is no more than a couple of days old." I said, appalled. As I pushed the sleeve further I could see more bruising by her elbow, then again halfway to the shoulder. The shock made me loosen my grip and Sakura took the opportunity to yank her arm back, sliding the sleeve down in a fluid movement.

I tried to make eye contact with her but she ducked her head, fringe hiding her face from view.

"Sakura..."

"Just go, Ino." That could have so easily sounded harsh, accusing even. But she looked up with a soft smile and said it kindly. "Deidara's waiting for you, this isn't fair on him."

What else could I do? I turned around and, with a last miserable glance over my shoulder, left the house.

Deidara was smoking, leaning on one of the gateposts at the bottom of the path to the front door. He raised an eyebrow questioningly when he saw me and I shook my head slightly. _I'll explain later_.

He seemed to accept that, taking a final drag on the cigarette before stubbing it out on the brickwork of next door's low front wall and flicking it away.

"Those things'll kill you." I commented, and he shrugged cheerfully.

"We're all dieing anyway, hn. Why slow down the process?" he took in my skeptical expression and laughed, reaching out to pull me close. "You're beautiful, yeah." he murmured against my forehead, and I wrapped my arms around him, momentarily comforted by the closeness. Even if he did kind of stink of smoke.

"Thanks." I said into his shirt. "Are you going to tell me where we're going now?"

"Not yet. I borrowed Pein's car, it's down here. Hn." He took my hand again and led the way down the street to a solid looking car, a Volvo, apparently.

"So this is the car that was my temporary ambulance?"

"The very same, yeah. We got a little blood in it actually, in the back there."

Looking closely I could see that there was indeed a small brownish-red stain on one of the back seats, near the door.

"Ew. Did Pein freak?"

"No. I know I've said this before, but he's a really good person, hn."

I settled myself into the passenger seat, closing the door and putting my seat belt on.

"So you can drive?"

Deidara snorted. "No," he said sarcastically, "I thought I'd just give it a go, yeah. How hard can it be?"

Despite his sarky comment he started to maneuver the car smoothly out of its space and started driving.

"I'm just surprised because you seem so disorganized. When's your birthday?"

"May 5th."

"Okay. So you've had a little while to get yourself together and learn."

"Is it really that important? Hn." Deidara looked over, baffled.

"No." I said lightly, "Just making observations."

"Oh, well in that case, can I make an observation or two, hm?"

"If you like."

"I observed that something was going on with Sakura that you were less than pleased about, yeah."

I nodded, "Very astute."

There was a lengthy silence and Deidara glanced at me again.

"Can you not tell me?"

"I... it's not really, strictly speaking, my information to tell." I said unhappily.

"If it's Sakura's problem, it's your problem, because you're so close, hn." Deidara reasoned, "And if it's your problem, it's my problem, because I care about you."

I sniffed, and Deidara looked over, eyes widening in alarm as he saw me get all teary.

"That wasn't meant to make you sad, yeah!" He panicked, and I laughed a little, wiping my eyes gingerly with the back of my hand.

"It didn't make me sad. I'm just really worried about Sakura, and you being so nice about it..." I shrugged helplessly.

"Seriously, hn." Deidara said gently, "You can trust me."

"I know I can." And I did, that was the weird thing. Just being near him made me feel safer.

"By the way, we've arrived, yeah." He turned off the engine and got out.

Looking around for clues, I got out of the car. There was the barest hint of a path leading into a sparsely forested area. I was determined to put off worrying about Sakura for the moment – there was nothing I could to that night anyway – and not ruin Deidara's evening and my first ever date.

"Are you dragging me off into the woods to have your wicked way with me?" I asked casually, and was rewarded with a chuckle from Deidara. He came up behind me and held me firmly round the waist.

"Only if you ask very, very nicely. Hm." He whispered, his breath hot against my ear, sending a shiver down my spine. I turned my head as far as I could towards him and, understanding what I wanted, Deidara moved around so he was facing me and pressed his lips to mine. I reached up tentatively with one hand, touching the tiny soft hairs on the back of his neck, and he deepened the kiss with a quiet groan.

I pulled back slightly and Deidara withdrew instantly, looking down at me with a dark and feral look in his eyes. He blinked once and it was gone.

"I'm pretty sure that it's boys like you who my parents have been warning me about since I was small." I commented, and Deidara grinned.

"You'd better be careful then, hn. Come on, I promise not to jump you unexpectedly." He took me by the hand and led me down the barely-existent path.


	29. Chapter 29

_**Hey hey folks! A couple of things to say in advance of this chapter: excuse the Japanese moment, I just couldn't resist. Deidara's catchphrase just sounds better that way! I won't be repeating it a lot so if it does bother anybody you should be aware it's probably a one-off. And I've been officially informed of the Pein/Pain thing but for the sake of consistency I'm currently sticking with the spelling I started with. If you'd rather I didn't then let me know in a review and I'll go with the majority vote - I don't mind either way. And now for the obligatory thank-you's! Thanks everyone who's reading, naturally, thank you to Junky for your detailed review and super-thank-you to my super-reviewers, the regular gang: missmridvika, demon lilith, Devil'sLittleBabyGirl, Aiko of the Akatsuki and Nutella's Biggest Fan (you qualify for reviewing earlier chapters and reading the whole story so fast!) many thanks to all of you!!**_

_**Disclaimer:**_

_**No ownership is claimed in the writing of this story.**_

**Study In Contrasts  
**

Hand-in-hand we wove around trees and bushes in the dark. I couldn't see half the obstacles we avoided, Deidara clearly knew this path well. We didn't talk as we went, there was something magical about this forest, which was getting more and more dense the further in we went, and the cloudy night sky becoming less and less visible through the ever-decreasing number of chinks in the leaves above. Some kind of spell.

It felt like we'd been walking for about ten minutes when the atmosphere shifted. I couldn't tell you what it was, perhaps the leaves above had finally become dense enough to block out every trace of the sky, perhaps the tree trunks themselves were closing in, it could even have been the grass and shrubs on the ground, reaching up in a more sinister way, but all of a sudden the magic of the trees seemed to take on a darker feel.

Holding onto Deidara a little more tightly, I started to wonder if he even knew where we were going. What if he just thought it would be fun to get hopelessly lost in a mysterious forest? What if we were trapped here, without food or any way of contacting the outside world?

Without warning, we stopped. Deidara turned to me, his eyes the only really visible part of his face, and his teeth when he spoke. "You okay, yeah?"

"Uh..."

"I know it's a little creepy, but we're almost there now. Hn." He pulled my hand carefully to his face and kissed the palm lightly, grinning at me before turning and leading me away again.

The trees were still scary but, as I'd suspected, talking had broken the spell. It was dark, and still a little menacing, but it didn't feel like it was out to get us anymore.

A few minutes later some kind of light became visible up ahead. Deidara turned to smirk at my confused expression and pulled me forward more insistently. We came out of the trees and into a clearing that was about half the size of my house. To one side was what looked like a large shed, just a little more sophisticated. It had a window in the front door, and that's where the light was coming from. Pulling me toward it, Deidara fished a key out of his pocket and swung the door open, letting me through first.

I realized what it must be as soon as I got in. One wall was occupied by a long, rough wooden table. There was a potter's wheel at one end and sculptures in various stages of being painted scattered along shelves. There were cupboards too, and a lower table in the middle of the room surrounded by cushions. In one corner was a sink, and next to that a mini-fridge plugged into the single wall socket. This was Deidara's studio.

Turning to him with amazement, I waved a hand round at the room. "This is... so cool."

He grinned widely, and again he seemed suddenly younger. "Thanks. I like it."

"Is this just in the middle of nowhere? I mean, who owns this land?"

"My dad, actually. The forest isn't that big, it's long but narrow, and it's all on his land, yeah."

"Do you come here a lot?"

"Pretty much every day, hn." His eyes traced the room.

"Even when you're not staying at home?"

"Especially when I'm not staying at home, yeah." Deidara said airily, "Now. Take a seat." He indicated the cushions around the low center table and I sat down.

"What's the plan?"

"I don't really have one, as such," Deidara admitted with a shrug, "But I do have food in the fridge and I figured we could pick up the question game again, hn. And if you get bored you can have a go with some clay." He sat down next to me and I leaned over to peck him on the cheek.

"It's perfect."

Deidara blushed a little. He grinned and rubbed the back of his neck with his hand, looking unbelievably cute. "Glad you think so."

"Whose turn was it to ask a question?"

"Yours, yeah."

I thought about it for a moment. "When was the first time you lived away from home?"

"When I was six my parents sent me here to live with my grandparents for a while so they could decide whether they were going to divorce or not, hn. The first time I lived away from home by choice was when I was ten and I ran away to stay with Sasori for a while." Deidara's voice was low and matter-of-fact.

His head was bowed, eyes seeming to trace the edge of the table. I frowned worriedly, not really sure what to say. He saw me looking at him and laughed, reaching out an arm and pulling me into a hug.

"What did I tell you about worrying about me, hm?" I laughed with him despite myself and he kissed the top of my head. "Now. My question to you. Why are you so worried about Sakura?"

"I think... she's in an abusive relationship."

"Abusive in what way, hm?" Deidara asked carefully.

"Emotionally, and physically as well to a certain extent if the bruises on her arms today were anything to go by." I felt bad saying it, like I was betraying Sakura somehow.

"Isn't she going out with the Uchiha in your year? Itachi's little brother, hm?" I nodded, "Well I wouldn't put it past him. He's probably a twisted freak like his brother, hn."

"Itachi's twisted?"

"Is that your question?"

"No," but I'd definitely have to remember to come back to that, "my question is... what are your parents like?"

"Complete opposites, yeah. Dad's a bit of a business tycoon, totally ruthless, cares about money a lot. He cares about family too, but he sees money as an extension of that. Taking care of his family financially is his primary way of expressing love, hn. Mum's a bit more of a free spirit, she's softer than dad. Sweeter."

"Did you get to choose who you stayed with?"

"Yeah right, hn. Dad said that he was in a better position to raise a child. Mum agreed – she said she wasn't entirely comfortable with the idea of taking on the responsibility alone. So I moved here with him and mum stayed in Iwa."

Deidara's eyes were narrowed, and when I looked it was as if I could see all of the confusion, all of the hurt that he must have felt as a seven year old being in the middle of all of this. And underneath that, something else. Something more dangerous. I reached out, pushing his hair aside to get a better look, and he closed his eyes with a shuddering breath out.

"It's my turn to ask a question, yeah." He said in a soft voice, leaning his head slightly into my hand. I stroked his head gently. "What was the story of your parents' break-up?"

"Do we want to try to move into lighter territory?" I asked casually, and Deidara smirked.

"Sure. Just after you answer my last question, hn."

"Fine," I sighed, still stroking his head, "They stopped getting along, dad cheated on mum with someone he knew at work, mum found out and told him never to darken her door again. We should keep an eye on the time."

He glanced up and I followed his gaze to a clock on the wall above the door. Twenty to seven. Deidara sat up, "I've just thought of something to show you, yeah. Come on."

Offering a hand, Deidara pulled me to my feet and I followed him to one of the shelves against the back wall. It was full of sculptures, some of birds, some of insects, a couple of strange shapes with what looked like outstretched wings wide open mouths and eyes. They looked like they were screaming.

"This one will do, hm," Deidara grabbed the one I'd been fixated on and studied it from a few different angles.

"What are you planning on doing?"

He just grinned and handed it to me – it was unexpectedly heavy, Deidara had made lifting it look easy – and chose another similar one for himself. I followed him outside, mystified.

When he put his sculpture down on a sawn-off tree stump I was still none the wiser, but when he went back inside and returned with a sledgehammer I started to realize what was about to happen.

Deidara offered me the hammer with a slightly maniacal look in his eyes, "Do you want to go first? Hn."

"No thanks. Should I be worried about getting hit by the pieces?"

His grin just grew wider at that. "Probably, yeah." And he swung the hammer down.

Okay, I'll admit: it made a very satisfying smashing sound. Like glass, but slightly denser. I have no idea what it looked like, I hid my eyes behind my hand. What can I say? I've never been keen on the idea of blindness-by-clay-shard.

When Deidara turned to me his expression was gleeful. "Isn't that amazing, hm? _Geijutsu wa bakuhatsu da_."

"What does that mean?"

"Art," He handed me the sledgehammer, "Is a blast. Your turn, yeah."

I hefted the sculpture onto the stump, still covered in the debris from the last one, and lifted the hammer. I gasped as it fell, smashing the sculpture into tiny pieces, scattered around the clearing. There was something amazing about it, all those little bits of what, just moments ago, was a single entity. And I was behind the force that had caused that. There was a perverse feeling of power in the destruction, and I could see why a young boy who felt helpless in the face of his parents' decisions over his future would take it up as a sort of hobby.

Peering over my shoulder at Deidara I saw him watching me with a heady combination of awe, pride and lust.

"Okay, I can kind of see why you enjoy doing that."

He laughed, his blue eyes clearing a little, and ambled over to stand next to me.

"What do you do about all of the pieces?"

"I gather them up and recycle them back into useable clay, hn. I'll do that later though. Want something to eat?"

/\/\/\/\

Half an hour later we'd pretty much demolished the indoor picnic Deidara had set out. I'd watched carefully for any signs of that half-crazed look coming back, but it was so completely gone that I started to think I'd imagined it.

Sitting shoulder-to-shoulder, leaning on Deidara a little, in his art studio. I couldn't imagine anywhere I'd rather be. Sakura was still on my mind, those bruises on her arm shaped like hand prints, but my brain seemed to have filed that issue under 'things to sort out later'.

And I did intend to sort it out, or at least try.

I moved my head to rest on Deidara's shoulder with a slight sigh.

"You okay, yeah?"

"I'm great, actually."

Deidara chuckled. "Not thinking too much? Hn."

"Do I ever?"

"No. In fact, you're probably the least thoughtful person I know."

I laughed, acknowledging the sarcasm, and let my eyes drift shut. "You smell nice. What's your favourite colour?"

"Where was the link between those two comments, hm?" Deidara laughed, "Thank you, red. Is this the return of the question game or just random fact-finding?"

"Question game. As always. I just thought we should be trying to ask some more traditional first date questions."

"Okay then. What's your favourite film, hm?"

Now, let's be fair. It was warm in there, dark outside, I was on my first ever first date and having a great time, I was super relaxed. I also had my phone on silent which, in hindsight, probably wasn't a good idea. But really, is it any wonder I lost track of time?

There was an insistent buzzing coming from my jacket over in the corner which, and I'm not proud of this, I ignored at first. It stopped, and then it started again a moment later.

"Actually," I stood up with a frown, "that might well be my mobile."

The buzzing stopped when I reached the corner and I fished out my phone from the pocket.

_Two new messages, two missed calls_.

"Oops. What time is it?"

Deidara looked up at the clock, "Ten to nine, hn."

"Oh crap." I read the text messages.

"Hey Ino, just wondering whether you're almost back." at ten past eight, and "Where are you?" at thirty-five minutes past.

"This sucks," I groaned, "I need to get back. How long does it take to drive back to mine?"

"About half an hour, yeah." Deidara said, standing up and grabbing his jacket from the table, "I'm really sorry."

"It's not your fault. I should have kept a better eye on the time." I smiled at him, "I was just enjoying myself so much I forgot."

Deidara grinned broadly, leaning over to kiss my neck. "That makes two of us." he murmured, sending a pleasurable shiver down my spine. "Now come on, we'd better get moving, hn."

We left the little cabin, Deidara pausing to lock it behind us, and went as quickly as we dared back through the forest. Which is to say that Deidara moved pretty fast and I stumbled along pathetically after him, the only thing keeping me going at more than a crawl being his hand tugging mine steadily along.

At one point I tripped over an unexpected tree root, and probably would have fallen flat on my face if my other hand hadn't been grabbed suddenly, Deidara pulling me back to my feet with a grunt of effort.

"Gotta be careful around those roots, yeah."

"You think?"

He just laughed, taking the halfhearted irritation in his stride, and led us speedily onward.

When we eventually got to the car I slid into the passenger seat with a sigh of relief.

"You know that path ridiculously well." I commented as Deidara started the engine. "Do you ever go to the studio from the other side of the forest?"

"Not often." he admitted, "See, this entrance to the property is actually closer to the school, hn. Since I found it what I usually do is come here when my last class is over, then I either go up to the house or get on a bus to Pein's."

"Does your dad know about it?"

"He knows it exists, yeah. I don't think he knows that that's usually where I am if I'm not home."

"You said before that you weren't living at home because of your dad's girlfriend. Is that always the reason?"

"Uh..." he frowned, "In short, no."

"What about in long?"

He cast an amused glance in my direction. "In long, it's for a lot more reasons that make a lot less sense. It's about... feeling like I don't fit there. Like there's an empty space in the puzzle that is my dad's life, and I don't fit, and if I spend too long with him he'll start filing me down until I do. It's not on purpose, it's just his way, hn."

I nodded sympathetically, "I think I can understand a little of that."

"It's all fine though," Deidara reassured me, "so long as I don't spend too much time with him, yeah."

"And that doesn't bother you?"

"Why should it, hm? We get along okay, I know he cares about me, he's just not that good for me as a dad."

I shook my head, "I'm sure that's very unhealthy, somehow."

Deidara just laughed, "I know I've said this before, yeah: don't worry about me."

As if it were that easy! "You clearly don't worry about yourself that much, so somebody has to! And besides, I'm not actually worrying about you. Just thinking about you... a little anxiously."

"Is that what the kids are calling it these days, hmm?"

"Oh shut up."

"On a side note, I solved the mystery of how Sakura and Sasori said almost exactly the same thing to each of us when they were telling us to get a move on, hn."

"Okay, but before you tell me I'd like to make it clear that I'm aware you're changing the subject and am making a conscious decision to let you."

"Good for you, hn." Deidara snorted, "Now: apparently due to the layout of the vents or something, everything said in the girls' toilets can actually be heard by people in the boys'. Sasori heard you, Sakura and Hinata talking and used pretty much the same speech on me later. Your friend should take that as a compliment, Sasori's quite careful with words."

Intriguing. And embarrassing.

"So he heard the entire conversation?"

"Apparently, yeah."

I was suddenly getting flashbacks from out little chat.

"_Oh, she does." Sakura answered for me, "But she _lurves_ Deidara." … "Okay, not love. She's obsessed with him though." _

"_Hold it! I don't even know for sure that I like him!... No, really. I mean, what if it's just that I miss the attention?"_

"And... uh... how much did he relate to you?"

"Not that much." Thank Kami for that. "Why?"

"No reason!" I laughed uneasily, "It's just... you never want people to hear what you say about them, do you?"

"Perhaps I ought to go back and see whether Sasori's willing to tell me any more." Deidara teased.

Oh dear. I sank down a little in my seat. _I hope Sasori has a bad memory._

/\/\/\/\

Deidara stopped the car outside my house, leaning over to give me a kiss goodbye.

"I'll see you on Monday, hn."

"Yep." I smiled, "Thanks for tonight, I had a great time."

"Me too, yeah."

I got out of the car, shutting the door behind me, and headed for the gate, turning around to wave at Deidara. He rolled down the window to call out before driving away, "Hope you don't get in too much trouble! Hn."

Laughing, I waved him off, then turned to the front door. I let myself in, looking around as if clues about mum's anger/worry levels would be written on the walls.

"Ino?" mum came through from the front room, "Why are you so late?"

"I'm really sorry, I completely forgot what time it was."

"Why didn't you let me know when you were on your way?"

Oh. Now that would have been a good idea.

"I genuinely never thought of it," I admitted, "I'm new to this 'letting people know where I am' thing."

Something told me that mum wasn't impressed.

"Ino, I am not impressed."

I grimaced, "I'm really sorry-"

"You said that already," Mum interrupted, and something in her tone really put my back up.

"Look, I apologized. It was an honest mistake – a stupid, honest mistake – and I don't intend to do it again. But if you start-"

"If I start what?" Mum asked indignantly, "I'm your mother, I have every right to worry about you when you come back an hour and a half late from a meeting with a strange boy! I even have a right to be angry, when you didn't even let me know-"

"I let you know a hell of a lot more than I used to!" I shouted, and she laughed out loud.

"Oh, well done!" She said sarcastically, "Yes, you can have some points for telling me you'd be out, and who with, but I don't think it's unreasonable-"

"Well I do!"

"Don't interrupt me!" She snapped.

"Hypocrite," I retorted.

"Stop being a brat..."

I tuned out the rest of her sentence, struck by a sudden feeling of deja-vu.

"Tell you what," I said firmly, cutting her off mid-flow. "I'm going to go up to my room. There's no point in us having this conversation now, we're too stressed out." See! I can be a grown up too! I turned around and walked, calmly, out to the hallway and up to my room.

Predictably, mum was knocking at my door within ten minutes. I went and opened it myself and she came in, sitting down on my bed with a chagrined expression.

"I really am sorry I was so late," I said, sitting next to her.

"I know. I didn't mean to overreact, I was just so worried..."

"Worried about my safety or worried that I was going back to old habits?"

"Both, really."

I nodded, I could understand why that would worry her.

"I probably won't be doing that – the going back to old habits one," I said lightly, and she raised an eyebrow at me – her way of inviting further details. "It wasn't particularly fun. Well, the parties were, but I can take that up again when I get my Spanish and English grades up some more. But punishing you caused almost as many problems for me. Now that I'm not angry with you anymore I don't have any reason to want to start all of that up again."

Mum seemed to consider this for a moment, "Okay. Well... that's good."

I grinned, "Hug and make up?"

After a moment of surprised silence mum wrapped her arms around me, and I returned the gesture.

"By the way," she asked as she pulled away, "did you have a good time?"

I felt the grin steal across my face as I nodded. "Yes. A very good time."

"I'm glad."

She left, closing the door gently behind her, and I lay back on the bed to review my evening. I had a funny feeling I wouldn't sleep much that night.


	30. Chapter 30

_**Yay! Chapter 30! A milestone of sorts, I suppose. Thank you readers, thank you reviewers, thank you regular reviewers: Poet Bucky, missmridvika, demon lilith, Nutella's Biggest Fan and Aiko of the Akatsuki! I 3 you guys and if it wasn't ten to one in the morning I'd be much better at saying that. Hope you enjoy the chapter everyone!**_

_**Disclaimer:**_

_**Really, do I have to? Nothing's changed: I still don't own Naruto.**_

**Study In Contrasts  
**

The next morning brought deceptively bright sunshine. I say deceptively because it was cold enough to freeze your fingers off if you dared so much as think about going outside. Luckily, going outside wasn't part of my busy schedule for the day. First on the agenda was calling Kiba which I did as soon as I woke up, give or take ten minutes for lying around and remembering my date with Deidara. Deidara, my boyfriend. Who I was going out with. My boyfriend Deidara. I'd never get tired of saying that... Anyway! Back to the task at hand: calling Kiba.

I talked him through the whole story, from Friday's art lesson to arriving home the night before, and he was suitably impressed.

"Okay, so far he's got points for looking after you at the hospital, having an interesting hobby, being on time to pick you up, showing an interest in your life. He lost a couple of points for getting you back late-"

"That was my fault as much as his," I objected, and Kiba laughed.

"This is a problem. You're already turning into a defensive girlfriend."

"Am not."

"Are too"

"Am _not!_"

"Are too, times a hundred!"

"AM NOT, TIMES INFINITY... Now can we please move on?"

There was a pause followed by a muffled snort, and then we were both giggling hysterically.

Once I'd finished talking to Kiba it was time for breakfast, a shower, getting dressed and calling Hinata. I'd remembered last night that during my brief argument with Sakura Hinata had hinted that she might know something about what the situation was, and I was going to find out what. I invited her over and she said she'd be at mine in just over half an hour.

Mum went out to meet some friends, leaving me alone in the house, so I took a glass of orange juice up to my room and did some halfhearted sketching until Hinata arrived. When she did I sat her down in my room.

"I need you to tell me about Sakura and Sasuke. What's happening with them?" Hinata looked away, her expression nervous. "Hinata," She looked up, "This is serious. Sakura had bruises on her arm yesterday. There's something very wrong going on."

"I... I don't really know..." she began hesitantly.

"You must know something! You said the other day-"

"I think I know when it started." The sentence came out in a rush, more like a single breath out than speech. I watched expectantly. "Well, got worse... Sasuke's always been... sort of possessive." Nodding encouragingly I sat down on the floor opposite her. "But recently he seemed to get... darker, if that makes sense. Suddenly he wanted her to be either alone or with him, never out with other people... as if he suddenly had a problem with her friends, even though all of her friends are his friends too..." Hinata paused to give me a sombre look. My eyes widened in half-realization.

"Hinata... define 'recently'."

Her voice was quiet but steady when she answered. "Since just after you transferred to Konoha High."

"This is... my fault?" It was a rhetorical question really, but Hinata jumped to her feet.

"No. It's Sasuke's fault," Her expression was harsher than I'd ever seen it before, her eyes flinty. "I don't know why Sakura doesn't just leave him."

"She loves him," I said it more bitterly than I'd intended to, "She's always loved him."

The stoniness faded from Hinata's expression and she sunk slowly back on to the bed with a defeated look. I knew how she felt.

"So, every time she's met up with me outside of school...?"

"I don't know about every time," Hinata said, her tone a combination of unhappy and frustrated, "But in the past two weeks or so... possibly."

"Why? Why does he hate me so much? We used to be friends, all three of us."

"I don't know... I don't even know for sure that it is you, it's just... it does fit."

We sat in miserable silence for a minute, then I shook my head vigorously. "Come on. No use moping: we need a plan." Hinata looked confused. "Plan? Plot? Scheme? You know what 'plan' means. We need to figure out how to help Sakura."

"We can't help if she doesn't want to be helped," Hinata pointed out.

"True," I conceded, "But we need to think laterally. Maybe we can find some way of making her see that he's not good for her. Maybe we can get to Sasuke somehow. Who knows? There's got to be a way round it somehow though."

An insistent knock at the front door made us both jump, looking at each other in confusion.

"Who is that?" Hinata asked nervously and I shrugged in reply. There was a tense silence, then the knock came again, louder this time. Standing up and heading for the door, I signaled Hinata to stay where she was. I got halfway down the stairs before whoever was outside knocked again and I felt my stomach tighten in sudden fear, wishing mum hadn't gone out.

I had two guesses about who might be at the door: Kin or Sasuke. Which is why I was so surprised when I opened the door to find Temari.

My first instinct was to invite her in, but then I saw the look of barely restrained fury in her eyes and remembered the way she'd hammered on the door and I started to realize that she probably hadn't popped round to see how I was doing.

"Ino," She said in a cold voice and I nodded dumbly, "Hi. Look, I'm just here about those pictures you were drawing in your art class the other day."

"Ah," I winced, "Shikamaru told you about that."

"Damn right he did. Shikamaru and I are together now, and we like it that way. Just because you've decided that you like him now, doesn't mean you can have him."

Gaping at Temari, I shook my head slightly, trying to find the words to communicate how completely wrong she was. She waited a moment to see if I had anything to say for myself, then turned around and started to walk off. I sprinted upstairs and into my room, almost knocking Hinata over as I ran past where she was standing in the doorway.

"Did you hear that?" I asked quickly as I grabbed my house keys and phone. A brief glance over my shoulder revealed Hinata nodding. "I have to go after her and sort this out. I'm really sorry," I snatched up a jumper and pulled it on, "Can you get home alright?"

"Yes. It's okay." Hinata smiled at me and I gave her a short hug. We went downstairs together and I struggled quickly into a coat as Hinata coiled a scarf around her neck and left, waving over her shoulder as she reached the end of the front path. I crammed my hands haphazardly into a pair of gloves and left the house, fumbling with the keys as I locked the door behind me.

Sprinting down the road in the direction Temari had started in, I began to wonder whether this was really a good idea. Temari probably wouldn't be adverse to giving me a slap if she thought I deserved it, and from the way she'd been glaring at me a few moments ago it looked like she did.

A brief moment of indecision hit me when I got to the end of the road, but then I made a split-second choice and headed for the park. Call it coincidence, call it some kind of sixth sense, within a minute and a half I turned a corner to see Temari up ahead of me.

Without giving myself a chance to talk myself out of it I called out to her, seeing her turn around and tilt her head slightly. I slowed down to a walk and continued until I was less than a meter from her.

"Got something to say after all?" Temari asked without particular interest.

"Yes. What made you think I was after Shikamaru?" I tried to keep my tone as non-confrontational as I could. I didn't want to pick a fight with Temari, just challenge whatever she'd been told about me.

She frowned, "Apart from the picture?" I nodded, "Well, Kin. She told me all the things you'd said about me before she shoved you, and she told me you'd decided you wanted Shikamaru after you saw us together. I didn't know if I believed her at first. I would have thought you'd be happy for me." She shook her head a little bitterly, "But then you didn't contact me, so I guessed Kin must have been right. Then Shikamaru told me about that picture today and I knew I had to come tell you that I knew what you were doing. Or trying to do."

"So... Kin told you I'd been bitching about you? And you believed her?" Even with my best efforts I think my voice was a little incredulous.

"You have changed since moving to Konoha High," Temari pointed out, "You don't come out with us as much anymore, you never skip school or ditch homework assignments. Kin reckons you think you're above us now, but I wouldn't go that far. I just think you have new friends, and maybe you've forgotten about having loyalty to your old friends."

"Not true," I responded as calmly as I could, "There's a lot more to the story than Kin's made you aware of. And none of it involves me trying to steal your boyfriend."

Temari looked thoughtful, and I was suddenly reminded of another thing I'd always loved about her: her complete fairness. She was a firm believer in hearing people out and giving everybody a chance to explain themselves. Before beating the crap out of them if their excuses were rubbish.

"Okay," She said eventually, "I thought there must be more to it, but since you didn't try to get in touch..." she shrugged one shoulder, not finishing the sentence. "Where do you want to talk?"

"How about we go back to my place?" I suggested, "It's freezing out here."

/\/\/\/\

When both of us were settled in my kitchen with mugs of hot chocolate, Temari looked at me expectantly.

"So?" She said, "What's the story?"

"Sheesh. Where to start?" I tugged at the end of my hair absentmindedly. "I'd better fess up now: I did like Shikamaru. I was sort of hoping to make a move on him at my party, and when I saw you two together I was gutted. But I was, and am, happy that you've found somebody. He's a good guy, and I'm sure you're a great couple. I'm over him now." I had a quick look to see how Temari was taking that and she seemed to be okay so far, nodding slowly and looking serious. "I didn't say anything about you to Kin. And, for the record, she didn't just shove me. She totally messed me up. I don't know where she found out about me liking Shikamaru, but I guess she used the story about me slagging you off so that she wouldn't lose everybody at once."

Temari seemed to be considering this. "What about that picture?" she asked with narrowed eyes.

"Yeah. That looks bad. I started it when I was still pretty upset about the whole thing, I wasn't going to turn it into a piece of coursework or whatever, but my teacher saw the feeling in it and asked me to carry it on. By the time Shikamaru saw it, I didn't feel that strongly about him anymore."

"But you did still have some feelings for him?"

I hesitated, "Well... yes. A little, at that point. But not anymore, I can promise you that."

She nodded again, looking like she was running through the two versions of events in her head. Kin's versus mine.

"Kin found out from Kankuro," Temari said eventually. "When I spoke to him about it he said that Gaara had actually realized first. Of course, he'd only been interested in terms of a clinical observation of group dynamics. But that's where I got it confirmed that you like Shikamaru."

"Liked. Past tense. I'm actually seeing someone now, you can get your brothers to confirm that if you like. Well," I corrected myself, "they won't know until Monday. Because I didn't know until after school on Friday."

Temari smiled a little, "Well, congrats on that."

"And you, on Shikamaru. I'm glad you're happy."

She blinked, her expression suddenly amused. "I've gotta say... I wasn't convinced by Kin's version of events. But I knew you knew about Shikamaru and I, and I just thought that if you hadn't said anything about it, there was probably a reason."

"See, I was thinking the same to a certain extent. I was looking through my texts after I got out of the hospital-"

"Sorry, hospital?" Temari looked confused.

I grinned wryly at her, "You didn't know? Kin put me in the hospital."

"Shikamaru and I left early to walk and chat. What happened?"

Filling her in on exactly how vicious Kin's attack had been was strangely satisfying. I felt like I was bringing her back from the dark side! Once I'd finished with that she told me the extent of what she'd known. She and Shikamaru had wandered around for a while, eventually running into Kin who had asked if they'd had a good time at the party and said she was just going round to see me, since we hadn't spoken in ages. Temari had gone home after that and Kin had called her later to tell her the 'whole story', before she heard the 'lies' Kiba and Ten Ten were going to be telling.

"I was skeptical at first, but I had known Kin longer than you and she can be pretty damn persuasive. She's got a whole load of new allies now from the year above."

I nodded, "Yeah, Kiba told me about that. What are they like?"

"They vary. Tayuya's a crazy bitch, alright for a laugh and a great dancer. I don't trust her though. Kidomaru is kind of weird too, got temporarily excluded the other day for taking four massive spiders into the science lab and letting them loose during a lesson. Jirobo doesn't talk much, I think he's a bit thick. The others constantly take the piss out of him anyway. Then there's," she paused to think, "Oh yeah, Sakon. He has a twin brother and they don't actually hang out with Kin quite as much as the rest of the group do. Sakon's the more talkative one, I don't think I've said a word to his brother. And then Kimimaro... he's surprisingly sweet actually. Again, very quiet. But more dignified than the others, somehow."

"They sound... interesting."

Temari laughed, "That's one way of describing them." She glanced up at the clock and frowned, "I have to go. I'm meeting Kin at the park in a minute or two. I've got a lot to say to her now."

"Okay," I stood up to give her a hug, "Thanks for giving me a chance to explain."

"It's fine," She shrugged nonchalantly, "I'll text you, or you could text me, maybe we can go out sometime this week?"

"Sounds good to me."

/\/\/\/\

I woke up on Monday morning with a sense of determination. Now that my own life was pretty much sorted I could fully devote my time to sorting out the Sakura-Sasuke-situation. Hinata had made a good point, it wasn't going to be as easy as simply splitting them up. She genuinely cared about him, despite his awful behavior, and first we'd have to make her see that she was better off out of the relationship.

Dressed and ready in record time I slung my sports kit over my shoulder and left the house, sending Sakura a text once I got to the bus stop.

"I'm kind of early, are you almost here or should I leave without you?

-Ino"

A minute or so later I got a text back asking me to wait and, after missing one bus, Sakura came jogging up.

"Hey Ino." Her voice was bright and happy, but now that I was looking closely I could see the bags under her eyes that she'd tried to mask with concealer, the way her step was a little less bouncy than it had been just weeks ago, the way her hair was not quite as carefully brushed as it was before. Small things, pointing to a big problem.

"How's it going, Sakura?" I kept my own voice light as well, wanting to avoid making her feel backed into a corner.

"Not too bad." She lowered herself down next to me, "I see you remembered your sports stuff today."

"Yep. No need to call Hinata for back-up this time. How was your weekend?"

"I got loads of school work done and started on my drama coursework, but nothing more interesting than that after seeing you off for your date on Saturday. How did that go by the way?"

After filling her in on my evening with Deidara and the subsequent argument with mum I went on to tell her about making things up with Temari. The bus arrived and Sakura spent the journey helping me to pick apart and analyze all the information we had about Kin's actions and motivations.

"Her new group sounds a little scary," Sakura mused, and I responded with a short laugh.

"Scary is right. I half wonder if she has some elaborate revenge planned out with these new 'friends' of hers as the instruments."

"You know, I almost wouldn't put it past her," Sakura agreed grimly.

"Did I ever show you the text she sent me after I got out of hospital?" I acknowledged her alarmed glance with a nod and got my phone out.

"Theres more where that came from if u eva cross my path agen. Beta watch ur step princess."

We surveyed the text message in sombre silence.

"Well... that's not good," Sakura said eventually.

"Yeah. But the implication is that she won't come after me of her own accord, so I'm probably okay."

"Except what if the fact that you've taken Temari away counts as you 'crossing her path'?"

I bit the corner of my lip thoughtfully, "Good point. That's just the sort of thing that might annoy her. Unless Temari drifts away subtly, then I won't get in trouble."

"Do you know what Temari's plan is?"

"No idea." The bus pulled into our stop and we both stood up, grabbing our bags and shuffling down the aisle. Stepping onto the pavement with my two bags, I frowned. "I guess we'll have to wait and find out."

/\/\/\/\

Our martial arts session went as appallingly for me as it had the first time. Even with Sakura functioning below her normal standard she could wipe the floor with me easily. This time though I got her to show me a few defensive moves and help me practice them to the point where I could see where I would use them, even if I didn't yet have the speed to actually manage it before I was knocked over.

On the way out of the changing rooms afterward Sakura took me by the hand and dragged me towards the canteen. I followed without protesting, wondering if there was something she wanted me to see or something. She sat me down at our group's table next to Hinata and fell unceremoniously into the chair on my other side, counting the others sitting at the table.

Sakura muttered under her breath, "One, three, four, six including us. We're just missing Shikamaru and Choji I think."

"Well, I'm sure we can... start without them." Hinata responded quietly, to which Sakura nodded. I looked from one to the other.

"Is there something going on here that I should be aware of?"

Hinata patted my arm reassuringly as Sakura stood up, banging twice on the table to get the guys' attention. It says something for her position in the group that there was immediate silence. Naruto stopped yelling at Sasuke, Sasuke stopped muttering half-assed retorts, even Lee stopped talking everyone through the new move he'd developed with Gai that day to gaze adoringly at my commanding pink-haired friend.

"Okey-dokey people, we have an exciting piece of group news for you this morning."

Group news? What had happened in the past few days that I hadn't been aware of? Unless she was about to...

"As of Friday afternoon..." Sakura continued, looking at me with a mischievous sparkle in her eyes.

Oh no. Oh Kami no.

"Ino is officially..."

Why? Why would she do this to me?

"Going out with..."

And dragging it out so slowly too! What did she think she was, a game-show host? Get on with it dammit! I closed my eyes to await the inevitable conclusion.

"Deidara." She sat down again next to me and I could hear the smugness in her voice as she finished up, "Thanks for listening folks. Any comments?"

There was a short pause before Hinata piped up shyly, "I think it's... really nice." I looked up to offer her a grateful smile.

"Me too!" Came a voice so loud it could only belong to Naruto, "Maybe you can make him and his idiot friends be nicer! Not that he's an idiot, but you know what I'm saying! Congratulations!!"

"N... Naruto..." Hinata stuttered, presumably overwhelmed by his generosity of spirit.

"I also applaud this decision for the two of you to share in each others' springtime of youth!" Lee babbled nonsensically, beaming at me.

"Thanks guys," I said with a grin, knowing better than to wait for a seal of approval from Sasuke. Sure enough when I looked over he was giving me a trademark Uchiha glare. Like he was measuring me up and finding me nowhere near good enough.

"Are you gonna tell us how it happened?" Naruto asked enthusiastically and I laughed.

"I don't think you want to be bored with the details."

"Just a summary then?" Lee persisted, and when a quick glance to either side revealed both Sakura and Hinata nodding encouragingly I decided to go for it. Just taking them through the basics took us all the way to the end of break and as we left the canteen we ran into Choji.

"Going to Spanish?" I asked.

"Yep. You?"

I turned to Sakura, "What lesson do you have next?" She was about to reply when she was cut off by Sasuke grabbing her by the wrist and tugging her in the opposite direction to my next class. I watched as she shot me an apologetic glance before turning and following him around a corner and out of sight. I turned to Choji in a split-second decision not unlike the one I had to make when chasing after Temari.

"You go ahead to Spanish, okay? I might be a little late."

And without waiting for a reply I went after Sakura.

I was careful about it. The last thing I wanted to do was just run up to them, so I tried to merge with the crowd. Luckily the end of break is a pretty busy time for the corridors, so by keeping my head down I managed to stay within two and a half meters of them without, I hope, being spotted. Then Sasuke pulled Sakura into a more empty hallway and I had to stay back behind a corner, listening.

"Sasuke, you're hurting me," Sakura protested weakly, and I heard them both stop moving.

"What have I told you about that girl?" I assumed that the person he was talking about in that vicious, ice-cold tone was probably me.

"We're going to be late for drama." There was some kind of defiance in her tone and I cheered on the inside.

_Don't let him scare you, Sak. He's just a big bully._

"I asked you a question." There was a pause, then an exasperated noise followed by the sound of someone being shaken, "When I ask you a question," he said coldly, "I expect an answer." A slight grunt of effort was followed by a muffled thud and a quiet whimper. I assumed that Sasuke had pushed Sakura to the floor.

"You've told me that she's bad for me," Sakura said in a low monotone, "And that she doesn't care about me. You've told me that she just wants to hurt me. Was that everything?"

Sasuke's voice was softer, almost gentle when he replied, "Yes. That was everything. Why don't you listen to me?" I heard his bag drop to the floor, followed by his knees. "I'm just trying to protect you from her. And the rest of them, to a certain extent, but Ino especially. She's a bad influence." There was something especially bad in hearing my name there. Until then there was a chance he could have been talking about somebody else. Not anymore.

"No she's not," Sakura replied earnestly, "She's exactly the way I remember her when we were in primary school together, she's just been through a lot in between now and then. Sasuke if you just got to know her again then I'm sure-" she was cut off by her own cry as Sasuke delivered what sounded like a straight slap to the face.

I had listened for long enough.

Stepping round the corner and taking in the situation as quickly as I could, I'd been right about the noises I'd identified: Sasuke was kneeling in front of Sakura, who was holding a hand to her cheek with a resigned expression, I fixed my best glare on Sasuke.

"Being a little bit rough there, aren't you?"

"Mind your own business Ino." He stood up swiftly, his expression like thunder.

"You were talking about me," I pointed out, "That makes it my business. You okay, Sakura?"

"Don't talk to her," Sasuke said harshly. I ignored him.

"Sakura? Can you come over here?"

Her head turned slowly from me to Sasuke... to me... to Sasuke. "We're late for drama," She mumbled eventually, looking helpless.

"Exactly." Sasuke's tone was, relative to his normal emotionless attitude, almost smug. He picked up his bag and looked expectantly at Sakura, who stood shakily and picked up her own bag.

"Sakura..." I started, moving slightly towards her. She looked alarmed, then shifted one foot a tiny bit in my direction before whipping her head round to look at Sasuke again. He was distracted for a moment by something about his bag and in that second I saw Sakura turn to me, looking as if she might forget about him for the time being and just walk over. But then he was on the move, pausing after two steps to look back at Sakura.

All I got from her was a single, disturbingly dead-eyed look before she followed him. Just like she had always done before. Just like she always would.


	31. Chapter 31

_**Hi... I'm so sorry for the lateness. I moved house about a week and a half ago and there was some problem which meant that the internet couldn't be set up for flipping ages. Anyway, now that it's up and running, here's the chapter! Thank you to my readers, special thanks to reviewers (Miims) and super special thanks to my regular reviewers (missmridvika, Poet Bucky, demon lilith, Aiko of the Akatsuki, Miss Hydrangea, Nutella's Biggest Fan, Devil'sLittleBabyGirl and deathrosekitty). I never thought I'd have so many people following my story, so thank you so much!!**_

_**Disclaimer:**_

_**Just because I'm posting it, doesn't mean I think I own it.**_

**Study In Contrasts**_**  
**_

I walked into Spanish twenty minutes late but Asuma just directed me to my seat with a concerned glance. Choji filled me in on what I'd missed and I did my best to catch up, scribbling down a rough copy of his notes so that I could go through them later. At the end of the lesson Asuma asked me to stay behind.

"Ino," He said once all of the other students had filed out, "you're generally very punctual, was there a problem today?"

Looking away, I shrugged a shoulder noncommittally. Because, nice though he clearly was, sharing intimate details of your friend's screwed up relationship with a teacher is a clear no-no.

"Well I won't push you for an answer. There was something else I wanted to have a word about but that can wait until after school if you need to get off to a lesson?"

I shook my head, "I'm on a free now."

"Fantastic. Okay, well I'll keep it brief. At this school we have a system where each teacher is assigned to two or three students. It just applies to the sixth form and it's not a big deal, all it is is that we keep an eye on your attendance and grades and meet once or twice every half term to make sure that everything's alright."

"Oh right? Whose group am I in then?"

Asuma grinned, "Mine."

I laughed self-consciously, "Makes sense, since you're the one telling me. A less stupid question, what other students are in your group?"

"Choji and Shikamaru." The grin faded from my face a little and I barely suppressed a groan. Of course I'd end up in the same group as Shika-bloody-maru. I should have guessed. Asuma raised an eyebrow, "Problem?"

"Uh... no. I'm just wondering what this whole set-up means, practically speaking."

"What it means," Asuma said, leaning back in his chair, "is that if you have any problems at school, or problems at home that you want the school to be aware of, or even problems at home that you want to talk about, I can help."

Give the guy some credit, not just any teacher could manage to say that without sounding like a complete saddo. I could almost imagine talking to Asuma about school-related issues, he had a very reassuring presence, despite the fact that he was a teacher and therefore so far removed from life as a teenager that the likelihood of him having any genuinely useful advice was about 0.0000000001 in 100. I smiled and nodded anyway, telling him that I'd bear it in mind and grabbing my bag.

"Oh, and Ino?" he said as I got to the door.

"Yes?"

"Try not to be late to Spanish again."

"I'll see what I can do," I said with a grin, and left.

/\/\/\/\

The common room was fairly empty when I got there, just Naruto, Lee and Choji around from our group, and there didn't seem to be much in the way of conversation going on. I sat down on the sofa next to Naruto with a sigh and he beamed at me.

"Hey Ino! You okay?"

"Naruto, how many times do we have to tell you? I'm not even three feet away, you don't need to yell."

Naruto laughed sheepishly, continuing with a tiny decrease in volume. "Sorry about that! But how are you? Did you have a good weekend? Have you seen Deidara yet today?"

My eyes widened in sudden realization. I glanced around the common room but the only Akatsuki member around was the guy in the mask, sitting by himself and talking on his mobile. I hadn't exactly forgotten that I'd be seeing Deidara at school today, it just... hadn't been on my mind for the last hour or so.

"I never would have pictured you two together," Naruto was still babbling, "but it's really cool that you are. I mean, you look like you match, even though I'm not sure why. Maybe it's the eyes or something. Do you both have the same colour eyes? You're both blonde."

"Shut up Naruto," I said absentmindedly. After this free period I had lunch, then art. Once I'd started thinking about it I really wanted to see Deidara, he'd be able to cheer me up after the Sasuke incident. "What are the chances of seeing the Akatsuki guys around at lunch time?"

"Well..." Naruto scrunched up his forehead in thought.

"Slim," Lee said after a moment's pause, "The year above normally go off-site for lunch since they are allowed and we are not."

Frowning slightly I looked at the pocket with my phone in, tempted to text Deidara and ask him to meet me in the canteen for lunch. He probably wouldn't have a problem with it. But it would definitely be against those irritating unwritten rules of dating, so I left my phone where it was.

"How was your weekend, Naruto?"

"Oh, it was amazing!" He said enthusiastically, launching into a detailed story about looking for a five pound note he'd lost somewhere in his room on Sunday. He'd eventually found not the original note but ten pounds instead, folded up underneath a pile of clothes. "It was the weirdest thing!" He grinned, and I couldn't help but laugh at him.

"Weirdest? From the sound of it the weirdest thing is that you can find anything in your room. I can't believe you're proud of the fact that there isn't a square foot of visible floor."

"Are you kidding? It's taken me four years to get to a point where I can honestly say that!"

"Typical boy. Don't your parents freak out?"

There was a second of dead silence, the sort you get when somebody says something really awful, and I felt the sickening sense that somehow it had been me. I didn't quite have time to wonder if I should apologize for something before Naruto laughed, breaking the uneasy mood.

"Nah. It's all good, I can do what I like with my room. Does your mum stress about tidiness then?"

"Only all the time," I groaned, "I don't want to go there. Is anyone else getting totally sick of the amount of homework they're getting?"

"Definitely me," Choji agreed, "How many vocab tests do we really need to have in Spanish? That's where most of my work comes from."

"My subjects don't require a lot of work in my own time," Lee said, "But I do sympathize with you. It is a shame when one's time of youth is taken up by excessive amounts of study. Although the study itself is such a wonderful use of time that it is certainly worth it!"

I just shot Lee a despairing look. Some people are beyond help.

"The only work I don't mind is Art, even though there's a crap-load of it."

"I wouldn't know," Choji said, opening a packet of crisps, "I don't take Art."

The conversation moved into the relatively safe zone of what subjects people were enjoying most and least. My phone buzzed and I got it out, opening my new text message.

"So u think ur sumthing special cos u got temari 2 b ur frend agen? Im gona get u 4 turning her agenst me. Ur about 2 wish ud neva bin born.

-Kin"

I tried to take no notice of the message, I really did. Told myself that she's all talk, asked myself what she could do to me. Trouble was she'd already put me in hospital once. What would she do now she was genuinely pissed off? I felt fear like a cold fist clenching my stomach and put my phone back into my pocket. Why couldn't Kin just leave me be? Stupid question. Because Kin believed in having power over people, and by talking Temari round to my side I had challenged her power. Now she felt that she had to prove that she was still more powerful than me.

The hilarious thing, if the situation was funny at all, was that I didn't even want to challenge her! I didn't talk to Temari to 'turn her against' Kin, I just wanted her to not be mad at me anymore. I sighed, _this is what you get for trying to stay on everyone's good sides_.

When the bell rang for lunch I followed the guys down to the canteen, queuing up for food without really paying attention to what I was buying. I sat down at the table with a cup of soup, a bowl of lettuce and a banana and waited for Sakura to get her food and sit down too.

She did, trailing behind Sasuke, a couple of minutes later, but she sat next to me anyway leaving her loving boyfriend to sit across the table from her.

"You okay?" I asked lightly, stirring my soup.

"Yeah, fine. You?"

"Got a weird text from Kin. Can I show you in a minute?"

Sakura looked at Sasuke briefly then nodded, taking a bite out of the apple she'd bought by way of lunch.

"Is that all you're eating?" Hinata asked as she arrived, sitting down on my other side.

"Are you talking to me or Sakura?"

"Sakura," Hinata frowned at the apple as if it had personally offended her.

"I'm not very hungry. If I were you I'd be more concerned about Ino. Lettuce? Really? Was there ever more of a non-food?"

"Good point, well made," I said with a laugh, "I wasn't really focusing on lunch today."

Once the three of us had finished eating we went to the girls' toilet and I got my phone out, showing Sakura and Hinata the text I'd just received. I waited for them to read it, then turned the phone off and put it away.

"What do you make of that then?"

"More to the point," Sakura said, twirling a lock of hair round one finger, "what do you make of it? Do you think she's going to try something?"

"From what I know of Kin, almost definitely."

"What will she do?" Hinata asked, "I mean... how bad will it be?"

"As bad as she dares," I replied with a shrug.

"I can't believe you're so... casual about this," Hinata shook her head.

"What choice do I have? I mean, there's no real point in worrying until she actually does something since I don't even know what to worry about. What I'm trying to figure out is whether or not it's worth trying to talk to her. Maybe I can persuade her that she's being ridiculous."

"Without actually saying to her, 'you're being ridiculous', right?" Sakura said, amused.

"No," I said, "I was thinking I'd say exactly that. I mean, you know how well she takes criticism."

The three of us simultaneously burst into semi-hysterical giggles at the thought of Kin's face in response to a statement like that.

"Seriously guys, do you think I should talk to her?"

Hinata looked dubious but Sakura just shrugged casually. "You may as well. She's hardly going to get more psycho than she already is."

"Another excellent point from Sakura. Hinata, you don't look like you agree?"

"I'm just concerned that talking to her might give her exactly the opportunity she's looking for to hurt you."

"And a very astute counter point from Hinata. Sakura, have you a response?"

Sakura raised an eyebrow at me, "No, and are you trying to turn this into debate club?"

"Alright, alright," I raised my hands defensively, "No need to get tetchy!"

"Tetchy?" Sakura let out a peal of laughter, "Tetchy! Who uses that word anymore!"

"I do. Wanna make something of it?"

The bell rang outside the loos and Sakura adopted a mock-disappointed expression. "I guess we'll have to settle this later. What's your next lesson?"

"... Art."

Sakura grinned at me and Hinata offered me a shy smile.

"I know what you'll be looking forward to then!"

I just rolled my eyes, "You two are so immature. I'm going to go pursue my learning now. Good luck with your lives!"

/\/\/\/\

Deidara was already there when I opened the door to the art classroom. He had been sitting on the desk he normally worked at, facing the door, and when I went in he jumped up with a grin. He loped over to me as I put my bag down by my chair, a mischievous expression on his face.

"How would you feel about me sitting over here from now on, hm?"

"Well, that depends," I said thoughtfully.

"On?"

"If you're going to take my coursework hostage again."

He laughed, "If that's what it takes! Hn."

"Alright then," I sighed exaggeratedly, "If you must."

"I'll just go get-" Deidara stopped with a sudden scowl. I followed his gaze and saw that he was looking at Shikamaru, who was watching the two of us and looking perplexed. "What are you looking at? Yeah."

Shikamaru narrowed his eyes at Deidara, "You. Bothering her."

"Bothering?" Deidara raised an eyebrow at me.

"I don't think he knows that we're together," I muttered under my breath, feeling myself blush as I said it.

Deidara considered this for a moment before turning back to Shikamaru. "You want me to stop 'bothering' her, hm?"

Shikamaru stood up but didn't move over. "Yes."

"What if she doesn't mind being bothered? Yeah."

"Have you asked her if she minds?"

"Good point," Deidara conceded before turning around and grabbing me, kissing me violently without warning. My initial instinct was to push him away, but I forgot that as soon as one of his hands came up to hold the back of my head, tangling in my hair, while the other slid down to the small of my back. My surroundings completely forgotten I grabbed hold of the front of his shirt, pulling him closer.

I felt him smirk slightly even as he was kissing me, and then the clapping and hooting from the other people in the room reminded me where we were and I pulled away, mortified.

"I can't believe you just did that," I said angrily, redoing my ponytail and knowing that I was bright fire-engine red in the face. Didn't he have any kind of self restraint?

"You did it too, hn," Deidara retorted, sitting down in the seat next to mine. I sat down too, shaking my head. Just because it was true didn't stop it from being an irritating thing to say. An anxious glance up at Shikamaru revealed him to be frowning at me, looking almost disapproving.

"You can stop worrying now, yeah," Deidara said pointedly, putting a protective arm around my waist. "I think we can assume Ino doesn't mind me bothering her."

Shikamaru looked for a moment like he wanted to say something, then shook his head and went back to his work.

"He pisses me off," Deidara commented in a low voice.

"Why?"

"Why do you think, hm?"

"Because I used to like him?"

Deidara's blue eyes were unusually solemn as he nodded, just once, quickly. I felt my momentary irritation vanish without a trace at this sudden show of vulnerability, or something like it, and leaned over, fighting through my natural aversion to public displays of affection to peck him lightly on the cheek.

"Used to. Past tense. Even if he asked now, I'd choose you."

I saw the corner of his mouth twitch up in a shy smile before he turned his head to whisper in my ear.

"You're amazing. Yeah."

"I do my best."

/\/\/\/\

That afternoon I texted Ten Ten and Temari as soon as I got home.

"Hey guys, just wondering if we could get together for a girls night? In or out, I'm not fussed.

-Ino"

I hadn't been sure whether or not Temari would be happy to go straight back to being friends like we were before but I figured the best way to find out would be to just try it and see. It wasn't just that I wanted to catch up with them, I've never had a problem with being honest with myself, I wanted to boast about my amazingly sweet boyfriend.

After school he'd walked with me to the bus stop, waited with me until my bus came and kissed me goodbye before I got on. It almost completely made up for the fact that Sakura had avoided me, not going up to the common room to meet me when the last lesson of the day finished. Like I said, almost.

Both of the girls seemed keen to meet up and Ten Ten suggested going to a club that we hadn't been to in ages.

"I'll see you there in forty minutes," I sent to them both, then went downstairs to ask mum permission.

I was, I confess, a little economical with the truth when putting the suggestion to her.

"Mum," I said, "is it okay if I go hang out with Temari and Ten Ten?"

"Where and until when?" She asked, looking up from her work.

"Temari's house, until about half past eleven. We haven't hung out in ages."

"School night, Ino. How about you get back here by ten o'clock?"

"Make it eleven and I might be able to do it."

"Half ten?"

I shook my head, "Mum, it's past seven now. It's going to take me at least fifty minutes to get there and probably forty to get back when the traffic's better."

"So you'll have two hours with them? What's wrong with that?"

"We haven't spoken in, like, a month or something! We have so much to catch up on it's ridiculous! Please? I've done all my homework," I turned my best pleading face on, making my eyes all big and shiny.

I saw her consider, reconsider, waver and finally, "Okay. Eleven. But any later and you're grounded for a week."

"Thank you mum!" I squealed, then ran upstairs. Time to get changed!

One green-satin-halter-neck-mini-dress and a lot of make up later I was out the door and on a bus to town.

I met Temari and Ten Ten outside the club and we had a noisy group hug before rushing inside like a very excited wave. We went straight for the dance floor, talking could come later, jumping and swaying and shaking with the music, drinking in each others' presences.

"I've missed you guys!" I screamed over the deafening bass line, to which Ten Ten replied with another hug and Temari gave me a reassuring grin. Then it was back to the dancing, forget about the rest.

After half an hour or so of this we gravitated towards the bar, getting three Bacardi breezers and sitting down in a little booth.

"Okay, Temari, I want to hear about you and Shikamaru," I said.

Temari pursed her lips. "Well. Hm. What about us?"

"How about... everything?"

Ten Ten held up her pineapple breezer with a grin. "I'll drink to that!"

"Fine, fine. It started at your party Ino, as you were aware." I nodded wryly. "And we've been going out ever since. Happy?"

"No way!" Ten Ten exclaimed.

"If you tell me about Shikamaru, I'll tell you about my boyfriend."

Tehehe, I said boyfriend.

Ten Ten gaped at me. "You have a boyfriend? And you didn't tell me?"

"Sorry," I laughed, "It's a recent development."

Temari couldn't help but be intrigued, just as I had plotted, and she gave us the whole story of her and Shikamaru's whirlwind romance. Okay, I had a slight pang when she described their first date. And I didn't really like hearing about how he was so open with her, telling her about his secret hobby. Shogi, the Japanese version of chess. Not so secret anymore! But I managed to hide my discomfort and enjoy the fact that Temari was the happiest I had ever seen her.

Normally the most cynical of my friends, Temari's attitude to love had always been 'sounds pretty but impractical'. Now it seemed Shikamaru might be about to change her mind about that, and I would have to be a complete cow not to be happy for her.

And after she was finished with her story I got to tell mine. And what a story it was! Deidara was, in their opinions, pretty much the perfect boyfriend.

"He's sweet but he has an edge." Temari summed up perfectly.

"Creative types are delish." Ten Ten agreed dreamily.

"Just out of interest," I asked the two of them, "what are your views on the slight jealousy aspect that seemed to be coming through today?"

"Definitely a good thing." Temari said firmly.

"You think?"

"Possessive is good. Very sexy. Needy is a bit rubbish, nobody wants a clingy guy, but the fact that he wants everybody to know that you're 'his' is great, in my opinion anyways."

"I want a boyfriend!" Ten Ten wailed all of a sudden, slamming her head down on the table.

Temari and I looked at her in alarm, "Is she drunk?" I mouthed, and Temari shrugged.

"Tenny?"

"Don't call me that, Ino. I'm going to go and get another drink," She got up and tried to move towards the bar, accidentally tripping over her own feet and landing flat on her face. "Owww."

"Okay, come on," I got up and took one arm, Temari grabbing the other, and we lifted her to an upright position. She waved us off as soon as she was resting against the wall, looking amused by the coloured lights on the ceiling.

I checked the clock on my phone quickly and groaned. "Temari, I need to go. I have to be home in half an hour. What are we gonna do with her?"

"I'll take her to my place, can you give me a hand with getting her to the bus stop?"

"Sure."

Ten Ten could still walk on her own, just about, but we needed to be on either side to keep her from falling over every time her feet caught on paving stones, each other or, occasionally, thin air. I saw her and Temari onto a bus before heading over to the stop I needed, sitting down to wait.

That night as I got into bed my phone buzzed with a text.

"Dumass airhed. Im guna destroy ur life. Hope u enjoyd ur littl run of luck wile it lasted.

-Kin"

I was really going to have to do something about her.


	32. Chapter 32

**_I can't apologize enough for the delay to this chapter. My computer had a virus that completely crashed it - I wasn't able to use it at all for weeks. It's fixed now, as of two days ago, and getting this chapter edited and uploaded was a top priority. I know I've been kind of flaky as far as uploading new chapters goes, but all I can do is apologize sincerely and thank those of you who have been kind enough to continue reading anyway. Extra thanks with cherries on top to those of you who have reviewed (Kigaroo) and cookies and love to my amazing regular reviewers (demon lilith, missmridvika, Aiko of the Akatsuki, deathrosekitty, Miss Hydrangea, Nutella's Biggest Fan and Jedi Goat). Fact of the matter is, I love anyone and everyone who takes the time to read what I've written! So thank you thank you thank you and I hope you enjoy this chapter!_**

**_Disclaimer:_**

**_Really, need I bother?_**

**Study In Contrasts_  
_**

The morning was ominously dark. Or at least, that was my first thought. Then I discovered that it was just normally dark – for half past four in the morning. I groaned into my pillow, trying unsuccessfully to hold onto the rapidly vanishing dream I'd woken up from. It had been something to do with Sasuke, that much I remembered, and possibly Deidara too... No, it was gone. I rolled over with a sigh. It had taken me long enough to get to sleep, it had felt like I'd lain awake stressing for hours, now I had to go through the entire process again?

I got out of bed and padded across the room to get my ipod out of my bag. Music was supposed to help you sleep, right? I scrolled through the 'artists' list for inspiration: AFI, Britney (I maintain: just the one), Fall Out Boy, Linkin Park, Within Temptation etcetera. Hardly bands known for their relaxing music! Not that it mattered, I wasn't even half asleep anymore. I shoved the earphones in and put the ipod on shuffle. At least it would help pass the time.

_Hey girl you know you drive me crazy  
One walk puts the rhythm in my hand  
Still I'll never understand why you hang around  
I see what's going down_

_Cover up with make up in the mirror  
Tell yourself it's never gonna happen again  
You cry alone and then he  
Swears he loves you_

_Do you feel like a man when you push her around?  
Do you feel better now as she falls to the ground?_

Oh screw this. I tugged the earphones out and threw the ipod to the end of the bed. Stupid psychic ipod. I rubbed angrily at my eyes, obliterating the tears gathering in the corners. I had already spent at least an hour last night worrying about (yes, and crying over) Sakura. Now my unconscious wanted me up super-early to get in some extra angsting in before school?

Closing my eyes I willed myself to fall asleep. I was sort of aware that repeatedly yelling "Go to sleep! Now! Stop thinking and sleep! Shut down! Switch off! Sleep, bitch, sleep!" in my head might not be the most effective way of unwinding, but on the other hand it was pretty much the only way to avoid thinking about all the stuff that was keeping me awake. Kin was featuring fairly heavily in the night-time worries, but the starring role went to Sakura.

When I'd first seen her at Konoha High I'd been struck by how much bolder she seemed to have become since we were kids. How much more confident, how much stronger in herself. Now I was starting to wonder if she was just saving all her weakness for Sasuke. I wanted to help her so desperately, nobody with two brain cells to rub together could possibly think she was in a healthy situation, but the fact of the matter was that I couldn't help her unless she wanted my help.

Except that wasn't quite right either, because from the way she'd looked at me the other day it seemed she did want my help. Just not enough. That was even harder, in a way, than if she'd appeared perfectly happy. How could I leave her in the position she was in when she so clearly didn't want to be there? But on the other hand, how could I get her out of it when she didn't want to escape either? It was a lose/lose situation and it was driving me more than a little crazy.

In the few days since witnessing Sasuke's behavior for myself Deidara and Kiba had been the only ones able to make me feel better. "Give it time, keep showing her you're there when she needs you and eventually she'll come to you for help." Was Kiba's input. The confident optimism somehow managed to be reassuring no matter how many times it was repeated. "The fact that she knows you care can only help. And if you like, I'd be happy to rough the asshole up a little. If you think it'd help." Was Deidara's version, never failing to make me smile. Of course, that might have been helped by the heavy making out sessions that usually followed.

Hinata tried to be comforting, but she was too concerned herself. We were co-conspirators, sharing what few updates there were; "She's so pale this morning, I don't think she can have got much sleep over the weekend", "I saw another bruise on her arm, definitely hand-shaped", "You see how thin she's getting? She hardly ate anything at lunch today", and trying to come up with some kind of plan. Sakura was starting to withdraw a little and at first I let her, thinking Sasuke might chill out a little as a result, but when it became clear within days that his temper was no longer associated solely with me I started to try to pull Sakura back.

We didn't need to say how worried we were about her anymore. That much was obvious, clear from the amount of time we spent watching her, talking about her, spending sleepless nights hoping she was okay and knowing she wasn't. It might sound melodramatic but if you'd seen her starting to lose her innate Sakura-ness the way we were you'd understand.

Of course, the days hadn't been all bad. Aside from the Deidara highlights, naturally, I'd spent an afternoon with Ten Ten talking about Neji. Not that there was much to talk about. She'd been in communication with Lee, who went to the same dojo as her at the weekends – she hadn't even spoken to him before recognizing him at my party – who had been trying to help her get Neji's number or at least his e-mail address, but apparently Neji was a very private person. I'd offered to get Hinata to join the cause but Ten Ten was adamant that that would be too obvious and said she'd rather not have too many people involved in the plotting. Each to her own.

I'd also spent a lot of time on the phone with Temari, talking about her brothers and Shikamaru and her A level courses. I hadn't told her about Sakura or Kin, not because I didn't trust her or didn't think she'd have good advice but because it was just nice to have conversations that didn't revolve around the dramas in my life.

When my alarm clock went off I'd probably managed about an hour of sleep in total since waking up at half four. I got up and dressed and ready, ate breakfast and left the house. I texted Sakura on the way to the bus stop, "Just leaving now. Want to meet up?" and got my answer back, "Sorry, can't this morning. See you at school." before I'd even reached the end of the street. Of course she couldn't, just like she hadn't been able to three times out of five since a week and a half ago. I took the bus on my own.

/\/\/\/\

Break was spent in the common room, as per usual. Sometimes Deidara (and usually Sasori as well) came and sat with us and sometimes I went over and sat with the Akatsuki, but mostly we stayed with our different groups and just smiled at each other a lot. I was sitting next to Hinata and Naruto who were both watching Sakura sit demurely on Sasuke's lap. Hinata was watching with blatant anxiousness, and I had to refrain from pointing out that Sasuke was hardly likely to start beating her up right there in front of everyone, but when I looked at Naruto I started to think it might be quite a good thing that Hinata was so distracted.

Naruto was looking at the couple with barely disguised jealousy. He wasn't even talking as much as he normally did, or as loud, which even I could tell was a bad sign. How long had he liked Sakura? And did Hinata know? And why couldn't anything in relationships be simple and easy and _nice?_ I stood up and made some excuse about needing the loo, not really wanting to watch this ridiculously tangled situation any longer, and walked out.

Passing Lee on the stairs I decided on a sort of whim to butt in on something that was totally none of my business. If anything could make me feel less ineffectual it would be actually helping somebody with something. "Hey, you know how you're helping Ten Ten with the whole..." whispered "Neji," normal volume "situation?"

Lee's eyes widened, "How did you know?"

"Because Ten Ten and I have been very close friends for years. How's it going?"

He frowned, "Not particularly well I'm afraid. I must confess that Neji seemed virtually immune to Ten Ten's youthful charms at your party and, in the one conversation I have managed to instigate with him since, has continued to be so. I think I have found a way of subtly getting the two into contact, but it will unfortunately have to wait until after the weekend as I will be basing it on an invented conversation from the dojo Ten Ten and I visit every Saturday."

"Oh. Cool." I sort of wasn't expecting to get that much detail straight off the bat, but okay. "You reckon that'll work then?"

"I suppose it might."

Something in his tone made me pause. "Don't you want it to?"

He straightened up immediately, "Of course I do. If it is what she desires, then I shall endeavor to make that the outcome," Lee looked down at his feet, his face unusually sombre, "Although I must confess, I fail to see how a relationship with Neji could bring her happiness. Her liveliness, friendly nature and enthusiasm are a stark contrast to his harsh, demanding, cold demeanor, not that it's any of my concern," and with that he shook himself slightly and went off at a brisk pace up the stairs towards the common room, leaving me despairing of the ability of human beings to be happy.

I turned around and headed downstairs, not really sure where I was actually going. I paused at the bottom of the staircase to think about it, hearing someone else coming down the stairs too. As it happened I didn't even need to turn around to find out who it was; the arms that wrapped gently around my waist and the soft kiss to the back of my neck were big enough clues.

"Deidara." his name came out like a sigh.

"Are you alright, yeah? You seemed a little upset when you left the common room."

I turned around, him still holding onto me, to lean my head on his chest. "Yeah. Just wondering how any relationship manages to happen without hurting somebody."

"Is ours an issue, hm?"

"No. It seems to be the only one that isn't, but somehow we seem to have managed it!"

"Well that proves that it's possible. So we just need to wait for everyone else to catch up, yeah." he said with a grin, and I stood up on tiptoes to kiss him.

"Come on. We have art next, right? May as well get to the classroom early."

"Okay. Even though Kakashi won't, hn."

Deidara took my hand as we walked to the art room and I held onto it like a lifeline. He was right, we kind of were proof that two people could be together without being unkind to each other or the people around them, and I was clinging to that as much as I was clinging to him.

/\/\/\/\

After art finished Deidara asked if he could pick me up for another date later that evening. "It'll be a little more traditional than the others, yeah. Involving dinner, so don't eat beforehand." he said with obvious excitement and I laughed and said yes, that would be fine, before going off to meet my friends in the canteen for lunch. It was a pretty solemn affair, Hinata picking miserably at her food, Naruto subdued, Lee pensive, Sakura silent and Sasuke glowering at us all over his soup. Shikamaru and Choji were talking quietly amongst themselves at the other end of the table and Gaara, who had joined us without a word as he occasionally did, was watching with a kind of detached interest. It reminded me of the first time I'd seen him, when I'd been struck by the clinical way he observed his siblings.

I was still happy from spending the last two hours sitting next to Deidara and that happiness was a kind of shield from the gloomy vibes coming off everyone. I did meet Sakura's eyes once and she offered me a half smile which I returned as fully as I could. She'd spoken to me fine in chemistry, chatting and giggling as if nothing at all was wrong, but as soon as she was around Sasuke she didn't dare. It was one step closer to the result I'm sure he was after: her total removal from her friends. A psychologist probably would have had a field day with him, but unfortunately we didn't have any such help available.

My phone buzzed and I opened it up to find another text message:

"Havin a good day bitch? I jst bet u r. Sittin in sum class at ur posh skool. Im guna fuk u up so badly ur gona wana die. Jst sumthin 2 look 4ward 2 princess.  
-Kin"

I knew as I put the phone back in my bag that I wasn't going to show anybody the message. I also knew that I was going to reply to it, although I wasn't sure how yet. I thought about it for the rest of lunch and the mind-numbingly dull free period when nobody of the people I knew but Neji, Lee and Gaara were around to talk to. And how would you feel about talking to those three? Actually, that's a little unfair. Lee was alright, chatting happily about what was going on with his maths revision and some television program about martial arts that he wanted to catch that evening. Neji, in a remarkable show of normality, added that he was planning on watching it too and then they were off in an uncomfortable half-conversation.

I watched with interest as Lee asked Neji whether or not he trained regularly, and when Neji said that he trained with his uncle at home but didn't do any outside training Lee valiantly came in with, "Well there is an excellent dojo which I attend every Saturday. There is a training session at two o'clock which is suitable for a wide range of abilities and the instructor is very talented. Perhaps you would like to come as well? It costs nothing for your first session." Neji actually agreed to check it out and the combination of triumph and disappointment that flashed across Lee's face for a moment sort of made me want to hug him. Poor guy. On the other hand, Ten Ten was going to be thrilled.

Eventually I came up with something to say to Kin.

"I think we need to talk. Let me know you can meet up.  
-Ino"

Hopefully it came across as non-combative and non-threatening but without being weedy or stroppy. Hopefully. Of course, it's slightly difficult to judge how an amateur psychopath like Kin will take anything you say, or text, to her. For all I knew she could have read that attempt at a peace treaty like a declaration of war. Although I couldn't really declare war, since she'd already done that. I suppose it could have been seen as an acceptance of war though, if she really wanted to look at it that way.

Who am I kidding. Of course she wanted to look at it that way. I'm not one for hindsight, but I have to say that looking back? I wish I hadn't sent her that text at all. It might not have made a difference, I grant you, but it didn't help matters.

Anyway, I sent that at the end of the free period and then had to go to my first ever 'mentor meeting' with Asuma. The room was very quiet for the first couple of minutes, Choji, Shikamaru and I sitting in an uneven semicircle around Asuma's desk. He asked whether we'd had a good week and we nodded. He asked whether we had anything we needed to discuss and we shook our heads.

"What's up? You boys are usually more talkative if nothing else. And Ino, you've seemed a little down for about a week now. You're usually such a loudmouth!" I shot him a look and he laughed, putting his hands up defensively, "In a good way. Honest."

"I guess I'm just tired." I put forward, aware that this is a catch-all for adults who don't want to believe that kids can have actual problems that bother them over a sustained period of time. "Or maybe I'm coming down with something. I've had a headache..."

Asuma let out a skeptical 'hmmm' and I couldn't help but respect him even more for A) not buying the crappy non-explanation and B) not pushing me for the real explanation anyway. Okay, so he spent most of our Spanish lessons smoking out the window as he spoke, not exactly responsible behavior, but he was a good teacher and a nice guy.

I still didn't tell him about any of the stuff that was on my mind though.

As we left the room Shikamaru put a hand on my arm, holding me back a moment as Choji walked ahead. I raised an eyebrow questioningly but he just shook his head, waiting until Choji was round the corner before he said anything.

"Ino, I've noticed something up with you too."

"Oh right."

"Yeah. And I was wondering if..." he looked uncomfortable and I tried really hard not to anticipate his next words. "I was wondering if it had anything to do with..." with what? How hard could it be to just finish a damn sentence?

"... Deidara."

I snorted derisively. "No. Bloody hell Shikamaru, I thought you were supposed to be intelligent. He's the only thing in my life that I'm not worried about at the moment. With the possible exception of my mum."

He narrowed his eyes at me, "Okay, tell me what is the matter then."

"Why should I?"

"Because Temari's worried about you. She's been bugging me to find out what it is you're not telling her. Deidara seemed an obvious choice, pretty much as soon as you two got together you started to look more stressed."

Thinking about it I could see how he could have come to the conclusion, but still. What I was more concerned about there was that Temari had noticed that I was hiding something. I'd thought I was doing quite well at being subtle.

"So? You're sure it's not him?"

"Yes I'm sure." I said a little bitterly, "If I had a problem with my boyfriend I'd dump him."

A flash of interest sparked in Shikamaru's brown eyes and I almost expected him to come out with some kind of amazingly accurate assessment of the situation. He didn't, choosing instead to shrug and start walking.

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to. But you should talk to Temari."

I shook my head dismissively and headed off in the opposite direction. Nosy bastard.

/\/\/\/\

When Deidara picked me up at seven I was wearing a black mini skirt with black tights and aubergine four-inch heels, a deep purple off the shoulder t-shirt and a long black metallic necklace with lots of silver and black charms hanging off it. I'd tied my hair back as usual, bangs hanging over my right eye, and my usual small hoop earrings were replaced by large black hoops that went with my necklace. It was a sexy, sophisticated look and Temari, who had left twenty minutes earlier, had done a fantastic job helping me pick it all out.

Deidara met me at the door with a single clay flower, painted in iridescent lilacs and pinks with a vibrant green stem. He presented it to me in a narrow bottle that served as a vase and I took it, speechless.

"What do you think?"

I stared at it a moment then looked up at him, "It's amazing. I love it. Hang on, come in a sec." I closed the door behind him and told him to wait where he was while I put it in my room. When I came back downstairs mum was there chatting with him.

"So I hear you're an artist?" she asked.

"Yeah... uh... yes. I am. Well, I like sculpting best. But painting's a close second, yeah."

"And what year are you in?"

"Well... year 13 technically. But I, um, didn't do that well in my exams last year so I'm retaking two and I'll be staying on next year to finish those, hn."

Deidara was looking uncomfortable and I stepped forwards to take his hand, trying to reassure him. "Which is good for me, because it means you won't be vanishing off to university just yet!" the pleased smile that spread across his face was so unbelievably sweet that I actually couldn't help but lean up (can you lean up? I think that's what I did) and peck him on the cheek. "We ought to get going." I said to mum and she smiled at me.

"Alright then. Have a good time you two. Back by eleven, Ino?"

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say." I poked my tongue out at her and opened the door, grabbing my jacket and letting Deidara out first. I called out a last 'bye' as I shut the front door, then followed Deidara to the car. He stopped at the passenger door, bending down a little to kiss me softly.

"Where are we going?" I murmured against his lips and he smiled.

"To see a movie." He said smugly. "Told you. This is a proper date, yeah."

I laughed and got into the car, doing my seat belt up as he slid into the driver's seat. "Your mum's nice by the way, hn."

"Yeah. She's not so bad." I agreed with a nonchalant shrug. "Now tell me what we're going to see."

It was a romantic comedy, silly and fun and exactly the kind of film I secretly loved despite the ridiculous plots and cheesy endings. Then he took me for sushi and we got take away so we could eat it in the park. It was dark and it was cold but we huddled next to each other and distracted ourselves with conversation.

Everything was going fantastically well until the topic of Shikamaru came up. I made the mistake of saying too much about his questions after the mentor meeting and the moment I felt Deidara tense up next to me I knew I'd said the wrong thing.

"Nosy bastard." He muttered vehemently and I felt a little stung, especially bizarre since it was exactly what I had thought. "What business is it of his, hm? Sticking his nose in where it isn't wanted."

"It's okay. He was just asking on Temari's behalf. I had a chat with her today, told her some of what was wrong, so she won't bug him anymore and he won't bug me. Sorted."

"Not the point, yeah. Trying to say it's my fault you're unhappy. Asshole. Hn."

"Deidara, don't worry about it."

"I'm not worried! What is there to worry about? I'm just pissed off, I mean, how much did he care about your feelings when you liked him, hm? And how 'concerned' was he when you were in hospital?"

"Seriously! Chill!"

He'd been speaking quietly before but now he shouted. "Don't tell me to 'Chill'!"

"What do you want? I mean, what do you want me to do?"

"Well, ideally I want you to not talk to him anymore, hn."

"That's not an option. He's my friend."

"Fuck that, yeah." he spat, "You have a crush on the idiot and you're still hoping to get together with him."

I gaped at Deidara, "Do you even know what you're saying? Can you hear yourself?"

He stood up suddenly, towering over me. "Don't patronize me! Yes I know what I'm saying, I know what I'm seeing too. The way he's always looking over in art lessons, hm."

"And you're saying I look back?"

"No! I'm saying you want to. And that's bad enough, yeah."

I'd seen this kind of strange mood in him before, it was the same slightly animal aspect of his personality that I could see in his eyes sometimes when he was kissing me, now it was manifesting as a kind of possessive fury. It was truly frightening.

"I want to go home." I whispered.

There was a pause and I heard Deidara struggle to calm himself down. He stepped back a little, turning away and breathing deeply. "Fine." he said eventually, his voice clipped, "I'll take you home."

We walked back to the car in silence and the journey back was incredibly tense. From the brief look at his eyes when I said goodbye outside the house I could tell that he didn't have his temper under control just yet. He managed a terse nod and sped off down the road before I'd even reached my front door.

I smiled through mum's questions and told her I was too tired to talk, somehow getting all the way up to my room before I burst into tears. I wasn't angry with him at all, and I wondered if I should be, I just felt miserable that he didn't seem to trust me and guilty for bringing up Shikamaru when I should have known it would ruin things. I felt stupid too, for thinking that it was possible to have a relationship that didn't cause problems or pain.

I should have known better.


	33. Chapter 33

_**Here we are again, at a new chapter. Exciting stuff! Special thanks go to the ever-lovely reviewers, that's missmridvika, Aiko of the Akatsuki, demon lilith, Jedi Goat and deathrosekitty. And everyone who reads this story, thank you for taking the time to care! Hope you all enjoy chapter 33 =]**_

_**Disclaimer:**_

_**I don't own a thing.**_

**Study In Contrasts**_**  
**_

My journey into school the next morning was basically one big opportunity for me to feel incredibly sorry for myself. No Sakura, as was becoming the usual, so I had nothing to distract me from wondering what was going to happen between me and Deidara. He hadn't texted me after the argument the night before, hadn't contacted me in the morning. How long did I have to go without contact before assuming that we'd broken up? Two days? Four? Maybe a week?

I was ridiculously early, after another sleepless night I just couldn't be bothered to wait around until my usual 'leaving' time and had just left when I was ready, so I went up to the common room for a bit, starting on an English essay that I probably should have finished already but hadn't even thought about since being assigned it on Monday. Twenty minutes of planning later I was starting to wish I'd just stayed at home. Bored of English already I got up and went for a wander, hoping I'd encounter something interesting if I just walked around the school for long enough.

The time was only ten past eight; first period didn't even start until nine. I walked down the corridors, sort of enjoying the emptiness. The school felt incredibly peaceful without hundreds of babbling kids moving through the hallways. I heard a noise from one of the classrooms further down the hall and headed towards it on the off chance that it was somebody I actually knew who'd also, for some inexplicable reason, felt an urge to come into school almost an hour early. As I got closer though I could make out the voice and recognized it instantly.

"Stupid. You think this is good enough?"

I had to get a lot nearer before I could hear the reply, "I'm sorry, I didn't say a word to him, I was just waiting for you to get home..."

Sasuke and Sakura. I considered going in and interrupting but after remembering how well that had worked last time decided I may as well stay outside and gather information.

"Not acceptable," he spat.

"I'm sorry Sasuke, It's just so difficult to remember anything at the moment. I'm so tired."

"You think that's an excuse?"

"No, I-"

"Shut up!"

I'd never heard Sasuke so vocal in my life. After a little thought I started moving slowly, trying to get to an angle where I could see them. The door was slightly open still, maybe if I just edged... slightly... that way... perfect. I could see a slice of Sakura through the doorway, looking miserable and scared.

"I'm sorry, it's-"

"I said shut up!" Sasuke yelled, and then Sakura's head snapped back as he slapped her viciously across the face.

"I'll do better, I promise I will," Sakura sobbed, holding a hand to her cheek.

There was a pause, then Sasuke's hand came out to move Sakura's hand away from her face, gently touching the place he'd just slapped.

"Sakura..." he said hoarsely, and she shook her head. "I'm sorry. It's just because I care about you, I'm trying... I'm just trying to..." his voice cracked and Sakura wrapped her arms around him, whispering softly into his ear. Sasuke shook slightly as she held him, and from the sound like the rasp of Velcro that seemed to be coming from him I guessed he was crying.

I backed away from the doorway, turning and walking off in the opposite direction as fast as I could.

It was fast dawning on me that what was going on between those two might be beyond my ability to 'fix'. There was clearly something beyond logic involved in their little world. The trouble was that although Sasuke had an excuse for thinking and acting on a slightly different wavelength to the rest of the world (having your family die before your tenth birthday will do that to a kid), Sakura had no such emotional handicap. If she could get free of Sasuke she could be happy with somebody else.

But, and this was the thought that had struck me as I practically ran down the still empty corridors, what if she couldn't be? She had loved him, in as much as anybody can love anybody at that age, since she was six. If that feeling had only become stronger since then... how could I separate them without hurting Sakura as much as Sasuke? And that was the other thing I was only just beginning to consider, that it might in fact hurt Sasuke. I had assumed before that he didn't care about her at all, hence the abuse. What if it was his bizarre, twisted way of loving her?

I got to the common room out of breath, collapsed on a sofa and dropped my head into my hands.

"Ino?"

I raised my head to see where the vaguely familiar voice was coming from and found Sasori standing at the arm of the sofa.

"Oh. Hey. You okay?"

"I am fine, thank you. May I sit?"

"Uh... sure," I shoved my school bag off the sofa and out of the way, leaving space for Sasori to sit down stiffly next to me.

"Deidara spoke to me last night after his meeting with you."

I nodded, hardly surprised. "What was he saying?"

"After he had calmed down he regretted the way he spoke to you. He doesn't have a lot of control over his feelings, and in addition to that he feels things very deeply. He mistook his anger at Shikamaru for anger at you and... you know the rest of the story."

"And he sent you to apologize?" I was unimpressed.

"No," Sasori seemed unfazed, "I sent myself because I'm aware that Deidara finds apologizing for anything very difficult. I hoped that some kind of explanation might make it easier for you to accept whatever pathetic attempt at 'sorry' he eventually comes out with. Otherwise you may find yourself waiting a very long time for one that's good enough."

I considered that. "Well, I'll bear that in mind. Can I just ask you something though? It's kind of unrelated."

"If you like."

"Do you remember that conversation you overheard between me and Sakura?"

"Yes."

"I was just wondering if... you were planning on telling Deidara anything else you heard then?" I tried furiously, and unsuccessfully, to stop myself from blushing.

Sasori raised a narrow red eyebrow at my obvious discomfort, "No. I don't gossip, it is a waste of time." _Phew_. I let out a sight of relief. "Was there anything else?"

I thought for a moment, wondering how long I had until either the bell rang or Sasori got bored and left. "Can I ask you about Deidara?"

"You can."

"He sort of implied once that he wasn't in the Akatsuki by choice. Is that true? And if it is, why hasn't he just left? And actually, what is the Akatsuki about?"

"Yes, it is true. Deidara was asked to join, he refused, Itachi challenged him to a fight where the winner would decide whether he became a member or not. Deidara lost and was then forced to join. He didn't leave because he and I became friends and he enjoyed the perks of being involved in a group with... influence. And the third question is not really any of your business."

"Ignoring that last comment of yours, is that why Deidara has a problem with Itachi?"

"That, and Itachi has no respect for art. Itachi found Deidara in his forest studio and got his attention by deliberately knocking some half-finished sculptures from the shelf so they were ruined on the floor. He finished the fight by telling Deidara that if he had wasted less time on messing around with clay he might actually have won."

I must have looked as confused as I felt because Sasori offered me a wry smile and a slight shrug.

"But... how long ago did that happen?"

"Long enough. But look at it this way: Itachi humiliated Deidara and insulted him and his art. Deidara doesn't forgive anything, let alone that kind of behavior. Itachi's continued indifference towards him has been taken as further insult and one day Deidara intends to challenge him again. And win, obviously."

Hmm. Interesting.

"It all sounds pretty..." I searched for the right word, "dramatic."

"Perhaps 'stupid' would be more apt. I have told Deidara to let it go, but it's just his nature. He refuses to think things through logically."

The bell rang, interrupting the smile of recognition that had somehow sneaked onto my face, and Sasori stood and left without another word.

I sank back into the sofa with a sigh. Honestly, as if I didn't have enough to think about.

/\/\/\/\

Chemistry with Sakura was a tense affair. Even though she didn't know what I'd seen that morning she knew exactly what it was I wanted to say to her, which was the same thing I'd wanted to say to her for weeks now, namely "leave your dumb ass boyfriend before he goes completely nuts and kills you or something," and she didn't want to hear it. The best way to keep everyone happy in that situation was for nobody to say anything much. Although we did share a giggle when Baki almost tripped over a school bag someone had left in the middle of the room. Some events just transcend all barriers.

I filled Hinata in on my morning's reconnaissance activities and she looked predictably troubled.

"Ino, what are we going to do?" She asked anxiously as Orochimaru stood up to start talking about coursework.

"No idea," I replied with a shrug, "Sakura won't listen to reason at all. I don't have a clue how to get through to her."

"She's completely withdrawn from everybody."

"I know."

"Her grades have started to drop."

"I know."

"The other day-"

"I _know_, alright?" I cut her off, looking away.

There was a pause. "It's like she's fading, Ino," Hinata said in a tremulous voice.

"Yeah," I muttered, "and we have to just watch it happen."

"Ino and Hinata," Orochimaru's irritatingly oily voice came from the front of the classroom, "Do you have something you'd like to share with the rest of us?"

"No thanks sir," I snapped, instantly realizing that tone had been a mistake. His snake-like eyes narrowed even more and his mouth stretched into a leering smile.

"In that case I'll see you after school, Miss Yamanaka, in detention."

"Fuck that," I spat, standing up abruptly.

"Ino!" Hinata gasped.

I shot her a mildly apologetic look then just turned and left the classroom, enjoying the look of shock on Orochimaru's face. I walked quickly down the corridors, leaving the school without looking back. Sun on my face, the breeze on my face, I'd almost forgotten how good it felt being bad!

Rummaging around in my bag I discovered £12.78 and a text message on my mobile from earlier that morning.

"Hey, I don't think we've spoken in, like, over 24 hours or something. Don't you love me anymore? :P

-Kiba"

Perfect. I hit reply right away.

"I'm just skipping school. You busy?

-Ino"

My phone rang a moment later.

"Hello?"

"Ino! Seriously? Where are you?"

I laughed, "I'm just passing the bus stop closest to Konoha High. Can you get out of school?"

"Pssh. Of course I can. Meet you at the park?"

"Sounds great to me! Oh, bus coming. See you there!"

I hung up and got on the bus, willfully letting go of the angst-ridden thoughts of this morning. _Forget Deidara, forget Sakura, forget Sasuke_, I told myself, _today you are just going to relax_.

Once at the park I settled myself on one of the swings, kicking up the bark that lined the floor (supposedly to make a softer landing for kids stupid enough to fall off) and keeping an eye out for Kiba. He arrived about ten minutes after me, followed by Akamaru and wearing a grin that raise a smile from the dead. Well, probably.

"Kibi!" I got up and ran over, meeting him halfway with a hug.

"Hey, you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

Kiba peered into my eyes and snorted, "Sure you're fine."

"Okay, I'm a bit stressed. Tough morning. I'll tell you about it in a minute, okay?"

"Sure," he said easily, leading me towards the vaguely wooded area of the park. I snapped a twig off one of the tree branches we passed and started throwing it for Akamaru. I didn't really have to pay attention to where Kiba was going since it was the same place we used to go almost every day back in the day. Left at the giant oak, in between the trees with the flaky bark, a short hop over the shallow ditch where a stream used to run and then a short walk downhill and sure enough, there was our little den.

Den was perhaps a bit of a misnomer. It was a shelter made from branches that we had stacked tirelessly against a fallen tree over a summer when we were both about eleven. It had a low ceiling but it was incredibly dry and surprisingly comfortable.

"Every time we come here I'm sort of surprised that nobody's knocked it down," I commented as I stooped to crawl in.

"I know," Kiba agreed, "Do you remember when we used to say it had a cloaking spell on it that protected us?"

"Maybe that's true after all, it's stayed up for years!"

Once we were both settled Kiba gave a significant cough and looked at me through the darkness.

"So. Are you going to tell me why you're skipping school for the first time since starting at Konoha High?"

"Of course I am."

So I told him the whole story, start to finish, sitting on the dirt under a roof of dead old branches. I think there's a kind of magic around places you spend a lot of time in. Memories collect there, a feeling of safety and general happiness ends up gathering like dust in the corners. Maybe that seems a weird way to describe it, but that's how I felt sitting there.

"So," I finished, "I'm a little mixed up. And I didn't think I'd have the space to deal with it at school. That thing with Orochimaru was just the last straw."

Kiba nodded thoughtfully, "So what do you think is the situation with Deidara now?"

"Actually, before we start trying to sort out my life, why don't you update me on yours?" That suggestion was met with a blank look worthy of Sasori, "C'mon Kiba. I've been talking for over ten minutes, my throat's getting sore."

"Fine!" Kiba shrugged, "If you insist. Family's fine, Ten Ten and Temari are fine, although you probably know that from your own communications with them."

"And school? Or more specifically, Kin?"

"Well, that's not such good news," He hesitated, obviously reluctant to continue.

"What's going on? Has she done something?"

"Not exactly," Kiba turned anxious eyes on me, "but her new gang is clearly a bunch of psychopaths. I mean, even more than her. They've been... I dunno, stalking is the wrong word. But sort of tailing Ten Ten around. Kidomaru followed her almost all the way to her house yesterday, but she managed to lose him by jumping on a bus just as it was closing the doors."

I gaped at my friend, "And you didn't think to let me know? Poor Tenny! And have they done anything to you? And Temari?"

"They wouldn't dare follow Temari home. You do remember who her brothers are, right? As for me, they'd have to work pretty hard to bother me. Look," he sat up as straight as the low ceiling would allow, trying to calm me down a little, "they're not actually doing anything. Not even saying anything, actually. Just sort of... watching. It's creepy as hell but nothing we can't handle. We agreed not to say anything for a while because we didn't want to stress you out. It's not like you can do anything about it, and we're all fine anyway."

He broke off his pep talk to stroke Akamaru who was fidgeting a little, presumably wanting some attention.

"I see your point," I said after a second or two, "but for future reference, I'd rather know these things."

"I know. And normally I'd have told you right away, but I know you've been a bit stressed out lately and I didn't want to add something else for you to worry about."

I snorted, "Well, there's a good example of your lousy judgment."

"Oi," Kiba objected, digging me in the ribs with his elbow, and we grinned at each other.

Akamaru let out an insistent whine and Kiba went back to stroking him.

"Alright boy," he said soothingly, "no need to stress out."

I watched Kiba scratch his dog gently under the chin, something which normally calmed him down within seconds, and when Akamaru shook his head suddenly and let out a low growl we both knew something had to be up. Kiba and I exchanged worried glances and then he bent his head down so as to be closer to eye level with Akamaru.

"What is it? What's wrong? Are you hurt?"

Akamaru flattened himself to the floor, still growling softly and looking between Kiba, me and the entrance to our little hideaway.

When Kiba spoke again it was in a whisper, "Is there someone out there?" The growl let up for a moment and Kiba's eyes widened in understanding, "That's what you're saying?" Akamaru rolled his eyes once more towards the entrance and Kiba nodded firmly.

"Right," he turned to me, his speech low and fast, "I'm going to go out and see what's going on. You stay for a moment, then get out the other end – you're still skinny enough to get round the tree trunk and hopefully the shrubbery stuff will stop them from seeing you. It doesn't look like an exit, they won't be expecting anybody to come out of it."

"And what about you?" I hissed as he started to shuffle round me, careful not to disturb any of the branches making up our fragile shelter.

"I'm faster than them," he spoke with confidence that I knew in an instant had been gained from experience.

"How often have they chased you before?" I breathed, torn between anxiety and anger that he hadn't told me earlier.

Kiba ignored me, now crouched at the opening. He turned briefly, offering me a lopsided grin that was, I think, supposed to be reassuring. Then he was gone, sprinting before he was even fully standing, and I counted one, two, three, four pairs of legs running after him. Akamaru had waited a moment, then I saw him join the chase with barks loud enough to shred your eardrums. Distraction, I guessed. Kiba hadn't been given the best start but if Akamaru could make the pursuers falter or turn for even a moment it would buy him precious seconds to get ahead.

Of course, I didn't waste time admiring their teamwork then. I turned and shuffled my way to the other opening. We'd deliberately built the shelter like this, with one end blocked off by a tree trunk, and had been annoyed at the time that we could still use the exit. We wanted it to only have one door, that way it would be warmer and more secure. Over time though, the holly bush that grew on the opposite side of the tree had grown larger and, while not providing any additional insulation to our makeshift shack, had offered significantly more cover. And a handy escape route.

I wormed my way through the tangle of branches, staying low to the ground where there was the most space, trying to compromise between moving quickly and moving quietly. It was a tighter squeeze than I remembered, but then it had been about two years since I'd last tried to get out this way, but it was less than thirty seconds later that I emerged from hiding and made a break for it, not even sure whether there was anyone left to be running from.

That question was answered soon enough.

A yell of delight came from behind me, in a voice unmistakeably Kin's. The chase was on.

I've never been much of a runner. Alright in a sprint. Less than decent over any distance longer than a street. I'd run in races at sports day before. Who hasn't? But this was the first time I'd really ran from danger, only to have it run after me.

What is it about being chased by somebody that makes them so much more terrifying? I'd been scared of Kin before, but as I wove between tree trunks, jumped over gnarled roots, ducked under snatching twigs, I'd never felt like my life depended on outrunning her.

Blame the adrenaline.

Thank the adrenaline.

Without that burst of speed I don't think I would have outrun her.

As the forest grew denser a split in what passed for a path became apparent. I knew from experience that one fork led uphill and the other down, the difference between the two becoming enough that you can't climb or jump between them without risking broken bones. I took the right fork and found a sudden reserve of energy, dashing uphill with unexpected speed. I heard Kin, my ears strangely oversensitive, reach the fork behind me and almost felt her flinch at the prospect of chasing me uphill. She followed me though, of course, stubborn as a mule and twice as ugly.

I knew I had the advantage, knowing the forest the way I did, and I intended to make full use of that.

I cornered sharply, turning back on myself, scurrying quietly along behind the trunk of an enormous fallen oak. Briefly invisible from the main path. For a heart-stopping moment Kin was alongside me, then she was running ahead. I wasn't sure how long I had before she realized what I'd done, so as soon as she rounded the bend in the path ahead I came out of hiding and slipped down the steep bank to the lower fork.

That oak marks one of the few points you can safely get between the two paths. As Kiba and I once spent the two weeks of our Christmas holiday discovering, the tree branch that looks just out of reach is in fact incredibly easy to grip, if you jump off the higher path with enough confidence. From there it's a short drop to a narrow ledge, halfway between the two paths. Then it's just a four foot drop, easy peasy, to the other dirt track and, in my case, safety.

I landed badly, twisting my ankle on a root I'd forgotten to avoid. Holding back a gasp I sat there for a moment to judge the damage. Clearly not broken, I could turn it fine, but it hurt like hell. I stood up slowly, gingerly testing my weight. Okay, it wasn't elegant, but I could still hobble along at about average walking speed. As far as I had come it would be quicker to keep going and come out of the forest the opposite side to where Kiba and I had entered, but I figured that might end up forcing me to cross paths with Kin on my way back. I turned around instead, heading back the way I'd come as fast as I could.

Keeping my head down to avoid any ground level obstacles that could jar my ankle, I made pretty good time back to the fork in the path. Only to bump straight into somebody. I jerked backwards, instantly assuming it was Kin, but of course it wasn't. She couldn't have run back that quickly.

"Sorry," I muttered, moving to walk past whoever it was, but they reached out an arm to stop me. I looked up, confused.

"Have you hurt your foot?"

I nodded, not really caring about the question. I recognized this boy. White hair, green eyes, incredibly pale. And something about his voice... realization dawned agonizingly slowly.

"... Kimimaro?"

His hand gripped my arm suddenly, painfully, and I couldn't help but cry out. He hooked one foot around my ankles and shoved me, sending me sprawling, then knelt down and took firm hold of my wrists in one deceptively large hand. With his other hand he pulled out a mobile, hitting a speed dial key without even glancing at the key pad.

Even as he held the phone to his ear he was gazing at me with the same detached disinterest with which he'd recognized me.

"Kin?" He spoke into the phone, "I have her."


	34. Chapter 34

_**Hi guys =] welcome to chapter 34. Thanks those of you who reviewed the last chapter - Ino2613, DeixYunalover and -X-Crescent-Moon-X- - and those of you who review pretty much every chapter - missmridvika, demon lilith, Aiko of the Akatsuki and deathrosekitty. Sorry if the chapter's a little short, it was kind of unavoidable. Hope you enjoy it though!**_

_**Disclaimer:**_

_**Been there, done that, got the proof: I don't own.**_

**Study In Contrasts**_**  
**_

Kimimaro hung up the phone and looked around, still holding on to me. I squirmed experimentally but he didn't even need to tighten his grip. I wasn't going anywhere, clearly. Not unless I left my arms behind.

"How long until she gets here?" I asked, and Kimimaro considered for a moment before shrugging.

"I'm not sure. She didn't give any indication of how close she was."

Acknowledging that with a nod, my cheek rubbing against the dirt floor, my situation hit home. Kin was about to have me completely at her mercy. I didn't think she'd kill me, she may have been psycho but she wasn't a murderer, but it would be painful and it would go on for a long time and it would take a long time to recover. Maybe she'd even put me in the hospital again. Maybe she'd accidentally cause permanent damage. Was it possible she could kill me by accident, if she lost her head? _Now you're just being stupid_, I scolded myself, _don't go over-dramatizing the situation_. Although Kin had done a pretty good job of over-dramatizing the whole thing herself. We were playing by her twisted rules. I blinked back tears and glanced desperately up at Kimimaro, slightly surprised to find him looking back.

"Can't you just let me go?"

"What would be the point? She would catch up within moments. You can't exactly run like that."

What a surprise. Although he'd given me more to work with than I'd anticipated. I'd been expecting a flat-out no.

"Does that mean you're willing to negotiate?"

"Why would anything I've said indicate that?" Kimimaro replied mildly, "I'm only pointing out that your situation is equally hopeless whether I hold onto your arm until Kin arrives or not. The only difference is that I'll have to justify myself if you escape, whereas I'll be rewarded if you don't."

"Rewarded? By Kin? What does she have to offer?"

Kimimaro shrugged again, not bothering to offer an answer.

"Maybe there's something I can give you? Money?"

He didn't even look at me. I let my attention wander a little, looking over the forest floor from my unusual ground-level viewpoint. Even I had to admit, the situation was ridiculous. Kin, for all her emotional issues, was just a normal teenager like the rest of us. Kami knows what she was doing trying to be some kind of gang lord. Of course, just because a situation is crazy doesn't mean it can't be dangerous too. Kimimaro had both of my hands behind my back, which essentially meant that both of us were stuck on the floor, waiting for Kin to show up and... do whatever it was she had in mind.

The thought struck me that that might be something I'd like to know in advance, "Do you know what Kin actually wants to do to me?"

"I can't imagine she's thought that far ahead. We were only expecting to find Kiba here."

"Oh, I'm sure she's had something stored away in her mind," I said lightly, "just in case the opportunity ever arose."

"Perhaps," Kimimaro agreed, shifting his grip slightly.

"I wish she'd hurry up," I muttered after another brief silence. Kimimaro didn't answer, but he did tilt his head questioningly. Or at least that's how I interpreted it. "I want to get it over with. Then I can get on with my life and she can get on with hers, satisfied that she's had her revenge."

There was another silence, which I decided to fill. "If I hadn't hurt my ankle, I wouldn't have been caught. Well, probably not," Kimimaro frowned slightly. "Okay, I'd have been _caught, _but I'd have been able to escape. From Kin. When she showed up."

I felt the hand on my wrists move again and caught my breath suddenly. Was it just me, or was the pressure easing? And more importantly, did he realize?

"I don't suppose it's entirely fair," Kimimaro thought aloud, "to hold someone down when she already has an injured ankle. One disadvantage is enough. I don't like unfair fights." This last sentence was spoken a little more quietly, as if he hadn't quite decided he was going to say it until it was already out.

I looked suddenly up at his face, startled, but Kimimaro was gazing up at the leafy canopy overhead. His expression was unreadable, but then he glanced at me out of the corner of his eye and offered a short nod. With that, he let go of my wrists completely.

I didn't waste a second.

Shoving myself abruptly to my feet I ignored the bolt of pain from my ankle, getting as quickly as I could off the track. As I stumbled through the undergrowth, something from my conversation with Temari sprung to mind.

_Kimimaro... he's surprisingly sweet actually. Again, very quiet. But more dignified than the others, somehow._

Perhaps there was something in that. One thing was for sure, I owed him one for this. I almost tripped over a clump of earth and mentally shook myself. I could think about my lifelong debt to Kimimaro later. What was most important was getting out of there before Kin could catch me.

I went as fast as I could for as long as I could, then felt around in my pocket for my mobile. Listening for a few seconds to make sure I was out of earshot of Kin, assuming she was even on my tail this time, I dialed the first number that came into my head.

"_Hey, you've reached Kiba! Can't answer the phone right now I'm afraid, but leave a message after the beep and I'll call you back! -beep-"_

Dread. It feels different, depending on the circumstance. There and then it felt like a trickle of ice cold water down my spine. I didn't want to think about what was keeping Kiba from his phone, and to be honest I didn't really have time to. I quickly scanned my contacts list, trying to find someone else who would be sure to drop whatever they were doing. It only took a moment.

"Hello, Ino?" Just hearing her voice was enough to calm me down a little.

"Mum? I need your help."

/\/\/\/\

Half an hour later my mum pulled up to the side of the road where I sat, cradling my head in my hands and trying to ignore the agony my foot was in. I'd dragged myself through the forest, fueled by a combination of fear that Kin would come bursting out of the undergrowth at any moment and a feeling of owing it to Kimimaro. I wasn't sure how much trouble he'd actually get in for letting me go, but the fact of the matter was that it would be a bit of a waste if I just went and got myself caught again.

"Ino!" Mum leaned across to open the passenger door and I climbed in, breathing a semi-conscious sigh of relief at the reassuring thud as it closed behind me.

"Thanks mum," I breathed, leaning back on the headrest and closing my eyes.

"What on earth happened to you? What's going on? What are you doing out of school? You're absolutely filthy, that uniform is ruined."

"I know, I'm sorry," I wanted to tell her the whole situation but I didn't have a clue where to start, and the minute I fixed on a particular section to explain the emotion sort of crashed down on me, leaving me speechless.

"Ino?"

Sliding down slightly in my seat, I looked beseechingly at mum.

"What is it?" She shot me an anxious glance, "Ino, why won't you tell me what's going on?"

"I'm sorry," I repeated.

She sighed, "I'm not looking for an apology, I'm looking for an explanation. You wouldn't tell me what was going on over the phone, but I've left work early to pick you up anyway. I've trusted you, now can you trust me?" I looked down at my hands, shaking in my lap. "Maybe when we get home," she murmured, as much to herself as to me.

When we got back to the house the first question was a predictable one:

"Why weren't you in school?"

Thankfully it was also the easiest to answer from my point of view, in that it didn't bother me at all. "I swore at a teacher," I admitted easily.

Mum gaped at me, "And got sent home?"

I grimaced, "No... and then walked out."

She sat down at the kitchen table shaking her head. "Right. Then what?"

"Then I called a friend and we went to the park to hang out."

"Which friend?"

I just shook my head, "I don't want to get them in trouble too."

"Don't be ridiculous. If they've skipped school they'll already be in trouble, won't they?"

"Not necessarily," I pointed out, "it's actually quite easy to get out of school without your parents or even your class teachers finding out for quite a while. It all depends how you do it."

"Okay," she waved a hand irately, "move on then."

"Well, we hung out for a little while at the park, then... these other people showed up. They separated me from K- my friend. Some of them went after him, one of them came after me. I hurt my ankle getting away and that's when I called you."

Just going into that much detail left me trembling with the memory, but in a sense it had the desired effect. Mum's expression had shifted from hideously angry at me, slightly closer to angry for me.

"Who were these people?"

Hm. Problem.

What could mum do if I gave her Kin's name, and the names of her buddies? Talk to their parents? Talk to the school? Nothing that would put them off. If anything, she'd be painting a bigger, brighter target on my head.

"I don't know," I lied as smoothly as I could, "I think they knew my friend. I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. It won't happen again."

"That's for sure," mum agreed, "and to help you stick to that I'm going to ground you."

No less than I expected, and no more than I deserved.

"It's quite clear what's going on here, and although I'm sorry you got mixed up in it I can't say it's come as a surprise," I frowned, wondering where she was going with this. "I'm sorry I have to do this, but it's for your own safety. Ino, you will stop seeing that boyfriend of yours."

"Excuse me?"

"I can't condone you sneaking out of school to spend time together, although as an isolated incident I might have been able to let it pass. But he's putting you in danger, clearly."

The words were going pretty much right over my head. The fact of the matter was, Deidara still hadn't tried to get in touch with me. So what difference would it make if mum stopped me from seeing him? None at all.

"Okay," I muttered, "fine. If it'll make you feel better."

"And it's not that- sorry?"

"Well, it's a fair point. You want to keep me out of trouble. If you think this'll help, I'm happy to go along with it. But is it okay if I go upstairs? I'm feeling a little dizzy."

"Of course," mum nodded, "I'll come up and check on you later. Thank you for understanding."

"No problem," I smiled faintly, "and thanks for coming to get me. I might not have got away otherwise."

Once in my room I got my phone out, calling Kiba again.

"_Hey, you've reached Kiba! Can't answer the phone right no-"_

I hung up, not wanting to hear the rest of the message. Where was he? Did Kin's cronies actually get him? And if they did, what did they do? I sent him a text, "Let me know when you get this, I'm really freaking out. Tell me you're okay," and lay back on my bed, closing my eyes.

A few moments later my phone rang and I leaped on it instantly.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Ino? It's Hinata, I'm calling from my house phone."

"Oh," I sagged back, leaning against the wall, "well, hi. Everything okay?"

"Yes, I was just checking up on you. What happened after you walked out?"

"Mmm," how much did I want to tell her? "Quite a lot of stuff happened, actually. I'll, uh, tell you about it at school tomorrow. How was Orochimaru after I left?"

I heard Hinata giggle down the phone, "He was shocked. He stood there dumbstruck for a moment then glared at everyone and spat out instructions for the next few questions... Then he just stormed out of the room."

"Probably to report the incident."

"Yes, probably," Hinata paused and even without being able to see her I knew she wanted to ask me something.

"Go on. Ask away."

"Well... when you answered the phone you seemed disappointed. Was there somebody you were waiting to hear from?"

I sighed, "Yeah."

"Deidara?" She hazarded, and I laughed.

"It's funny how everyone assumes my entire life revolves around him now. No, I'm waiting to hear from Kiba."

"Is everything alright with him?"

It was a moment before I could answer her. "I don't know," I said eventually. "But I really hope so."

/\/\/\/\

Yet another sleepless night. Honestly, I was about ready to get mum in to whack me over the head with a blunt object. Anything for a few minutes of rest. I did manage to keep my eyes shut for a couple of hours at around three in the morning, but when it was time to get up and ready for school I can't say I felt particularly refreshed. More like exhausted, stressed and scared. So much for everything looking better in the morning!

At least my ankle was better though. It was still a little sore, but I could walk on it fine so long as I didn't lean too much on that leg.

I put on my uniform and ate breakfast in a kind of trance, not interested in the mundane activities. The first thing to break me out of my thoughts was seeing somebody unexpected at the bus stop.

"Sakura?"

She had been staring at the floor but when I spoke her head came up, worry evident in her expression, and it was the first time in days I'd really seen that spark of recognition in her eyes when she looked at me.

"Ino, what happened yesterday with Orochimaru?"

"Uh, just a bit of a disagreement," I shrugged it off and grinned at Sakura. She hesitated, then smiled back.

"That guy couldn't be creepier if he tried."

"I'll second that," I sighed as I leaned next to her, "I really don't want to end up in a detention with him. I guess I can't really avoid it though."

"Oh, it shouldn't be too bad," Sakura said lightly, "I mean, you'll be in good company."

"Who else has detention?"

Sakura rolled her eyes, "You mean she didn't tell you? Orochimaru gave Hinata a detention too. You'll both have to stay after school today."

"She didn't mention that," I grimaced, "I bet her parents weren't best pleased."

"Well, at least you'll be able to offer each other moral support. And provide witnesses for each other if Orochimaru gets a bit... overexcited."

We looked at each other, letting out twin giggles. Much as I hated to ruin this rare moment of connection, I knew it would be the best time to get her to listen to reason. I steeled myself, turning to face her full on.

"Sakura, I know you don't want to hear this, but Sasuke is bad for you."

Sakura looked startled, "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Don't make me give you examples," I said quietly, "I've seen and heard enough, I know how he talks to you, I know how he treats you. Heck, he's done it in front of me."

"You don't know what you're talking about. Seeing a couple of arguments doesn't make you an expert on my relationship," Sakura's voice was harsh, making it clear I was fighting a losing battle.

And yet I persevered. Just call me dedicated.

"How many times has he made you cry? How many times has he hurt you, Sakura?"

She straightened up, closing the distance between us slightly. "He loves me. And I love him."

"The way he treats you isn't love! Why the hell can't you see that?"

"You don't know him, Ino!"

"Maybe not," I said, raising my voice, "but I know you, and I know that this relationship is sucking away what makes you who you are!"

"People change! What, you think I'd just stay the same girl I was back when we were friends in primary school? Don't be so naive!"

"I saw you before school yesterday, I saw him slap you, there is no excuse for that kind of behavior."

"We love each other!"

"Why do you keep saying that as if it means something?"

Sakura gasped, furious, and I immediately regretted my question.

"All I'm trying to say is that I can't bear to watch you... fade away like this. And I know he's the one causing it."

"What do you want from me?" Sakura spat, "Do you want me to break up with him? Is that what you want?"

"Well, ye-"

"So you can have him for yourself?"

My mouth fell open in shock, "Sakura, what the hell?"

"Is this some kind of sick jealousy thing?"

"Now you're just clutching at-"

"You always liked him, are you hoping that if we break up you can get in there?"

"Don't be ridiculous!" I yelled, then took a deep breath to calm myself down, "I can't believe you'd actually think that. Is that what you think I'm like?"

Sakura just shrugged, "How should I know? It's a long time since primary school. Like I said, people change," the bus arrived and Sakura turned away, speaking quietly over her shoulder, "I'm getting a lift today. I just came here to check you were okay." And with that as her goodbye she walked off down the street, turning the corner as I sat down on the bus.

As I hopped off at the Konoha High stop my phone rang. I fumbled for it in my bag, checking the caller ID.

Kiba.

I answered as fast as I could, "Hello?"

"Hi Ino."

Not Kiba's voice. A girl's, but not Kin's voice either. Was this good news or not?

"Hello? Who is this?"

"I'm Tayuya. You go out with that girly guy from the Akatsuki, don't you?"

"Uh..."

"Well can you pass something on for us?"

"Well-"

"Let him know that they're not gonna be the biggest operation in town for much longer. Kay, bye n-"

"Stop! Wait, what's happened to Kiba?"

"Your little friend? With the mutt?"

"Yeah, the guy whose mobile this is."

Tayuya just laughed nastily and hung up, leaving me shaking. What was I supposed to think after that? And what was that message to the Akatsuki about?

Well, thought of the devil. Devils _plural_, actually. Deidara and Sasori were just being dropped off by Pein's car. I watched them head up the steps to the massive double doors of Konoha High and made a split-second decision, running up to the car and banging on the door just as Pein was starting the engine again. He wound down the driver-side window, looking blankly at me.

"I have some questions for you. And a message from somebody else."

Pein narrowed his eyes and glanced round at the other students before shrugging slightly and nodding.

"The passenger door is open."

I hurried round the side of the car and got in, aware that this might well be a stupid move. I didn't care though, I was sick to death of questions without answers.

"Do you mind talking at my house? Or would you prefer to go somewhere more neutral?"

"I don't mind your house."

"You're not at all nervous about being alone with a man you hardly know? That's confidence," his face gave nothing away but his tone was casual.

"Confidence, yes," I said with a smile, "but not just in you. Deidara's told me often enough that you're a good guy. I trust his judgment."

That, and I figured the best way to get honesty from him would be to show him I trusted him. Most people are amazingly keen, whether they know it or not, to fulfill other people's expectations of them.

"I'm sorry to bother you," I said after a few minutes of watching the houses flash by in silence, "I just don't seem to be getting any answers out of the other guys. And as of yesterday I'm wondering if I've accidentally got in the way of some kind of crossfire, so... yeah."

"It's fine. Although I'm not sure what crossfire you could have been in the middle of, the Akatsuki certainly aren't firing anything. Either way, I hear you've been under a lot of stress lately," he caught my look of surprise and smiled a little, "Deidara didn't share any details that weren't specifically related to him. But if I can help by giving you a little more information I'm happy to do so. And you said something about a message?"

"Yeah, a girl called Tayuya wants the Akatsuki to know that they're not going to be the biggest group around, or something. Mean anything to you?"

Pein considered for a moment before shaking his head, "No. But I'll look into it. In the meantime, we've arrived."


	35. Chapter 35

**_Hey! Early update, because I just love you all that much. I really should be spending more time studying... ah well. Thank you loves-emo-guys-with-hair, demon lilith, Aiko of the Akatsuki, missmridvika and deathrosekitty. Hope you all enjoy the chapter. I struggled with some aspects of it (chocolate chip cookie for anyone who can guess which aspect/s) but I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out overall!_**

**_Disclaimer:_**

**_I don't own Naruto. Not that I've ever pretended I did.  
_**

**Study In Contrasts_  
_**

The house was small and unassuming, just another one on the street, exactly the same as the ones next to and opposite it. I don't know why I was expecting something different, but for some reason I'd been imagining Pein's house as some kind of secret hideout for the Akatsuki. Maybe underground or something. This was just... a house.

I followed Pein to the front door, suddenly nervous as I stepped into his home. He didn't seem bothered by my being there though, shedding his jacket and calling up to someone, presumably Konan, that he was back. He then led me into the living room, a small bright room with a wooden floor and cream colored walls, a dark green sofa and chair and a small television in one corner. Pein sat down in the chair and gestured for me to sit on the sofa. I perched on the edge, feeling uncomfortable.

"You had a question?" he prompted after a moment of tense silence and I nodded.

"Yes. I want to know about the Akatsuki. What's the deal?"

"Every member has something in common. They're members of families with substantial power or wealth. I have created an alliance of the people who will later inherit that influence."

Seriously? This was about money?

I frowned, "Is that even allowed?"

"Allowed by who? There's no contract, this isn't a legal issue. They're just a group of friends."

"With a leader."

Pein raised an eyebrow, "You asked, I gave you an answer."

"What are you planning to do, take over the world?"

"Don't be ridiculous," he said dismissively, "when they take over from their parents they will be able to work together to have considerably more power in the world of business than any of them would individually. This can only be to everyone's advantage when it comes to issues they may wish to address. And it will reduce petty squabbling and pointless rivalries between those in the same industry."

"Like what?" I was still slightly taken aback by the bizarre truth behind the Akatsuki. A business alliance? Seriously?

"I don't know. Possibly some kind of large-scale charitable project, maybe something around climate change, whatever they choose they will be able to help each other achieve it."

"And what do you have to do with it?"

"I'm facilitating the alliance, and as such will have a sort of influence of my own. You say I'm their leader now, that role will mean that my ideas will be listened to, my requests mostly granted."

"This is really weird," I said, scrunching up my nose.

"How so?"

"Well it just seems so... large scale. Especially for a group of teenagers in sixth form. Has it been done before?"

"Obviously in a private school such as Konoha High there are a lot of children in a similar position to the Akatsuki members, but often company rivalries discourage the most powerful from befriending each other. And very rarely would eight of the future inheritors of some of the biggest companies around be in one friendship group. And for that group to last beyond sixth form... I don't think it would be likely to occur naturally, let's leave it at that."

"And do they all know what your great purpose is?"

"Yes. That was exactly what they signed up for on joining."

"What I really don't understand is why anyone would want to be in competition with you. I mean, it's not like you guys are a traditional 'gang', you're not worried about territories or doing anything illegal."

"Exactly," Pein agreed, "so what is Miss Tayuya talking about?"

Now there's a question. Unfortunately, not one that either of us knew the answer to.

"Oh, there is another thing, what about all the bullying your guys do?"

Pein looked, ironically, pained. "Yes. When I heard about it I had a talk to them. It wasn't my doing. I had hoped that it had eased up a little."

"It has," I reassured him, "but when you say it wasn't your doing, whose was it?"

"Orochimaru's," he replied grimly.

"Seriously?"

"Yes. He was apparently creating an early sense of rivalry and superiority over other members of the school also set to be part of important companies. In all honesty I suspect he mostly wanted to try his own influence and see how much he could get away with. And Orochimaru has always seemed to enjoy cruelty for the sake of cruelty."

I shook my head a little, trying to come to terms with all this stuff. "I just don't get this whole company rivalry, company loyalty stuff. You just work where you work, as far as I'm concerned. Why should anyone care?"

"These companies are family run empires," Pein attempted to explain, "not only are there huge sums of money involved, but we're talking about family legacies. To use one example, the Uchiha run company is enormous, worth billions of pounds, and when Itachi is old enough to take over he will be taking up the post his father held before that tragic accident. Can you imagine how much that means to him?"

"I guess so."

Konan came into the room then, noting my existence with a single raised eyebrow.

"Hey," she turned to Pein with a quizzical look.

"Ino," Pein said by way of introduction, "Deidara's girlfriend."

"Oh yes. How's your head?"

"Fine thanks," I replied, "and I don't know about the Deidara's girlfriend part."

"You broke up?" Konan asked, leaning on the wall next to Pein's chair.

I wondered why I'd even said anything. "I don't know to be honest. We had an argument and we haven't talked since."

Konan and Pein exchanged a brief look, probably one of those communication-from-soul-to-soul looks designed to be a complete mystery to anyone outside of the couple, and then Pein got up and left the room.

"Do either of you want a drink?" He called through.

"Bring a couple of cokes out," Konan responded. She looked to me, "You do like coke, right?"

I nodded, then she nodded, then we both just sat there for a couple of minutes while we waited for Pein. It seemed to take a little while for him to get the drinks but when he did get back the conversation started up surprisingly easily.

"Why did you bring Ino back here to talk?" Konan asked at one point while we were talking about what lessons I'd have missed already.

"I offered the option of going somewhere else, she didn't mind."

"I think she meant why didn't we just talk outside the school," I clarified.

"Of course. Well, I knew that teachers would come out to close the gates in a few minutes and presumably Ino would be in trouble if she was sitting in a car having a conversation rather than, say, in whatever lesson she was missing."

Konan seemed to consider that carefully before nodding her approval.

Watching those two was kind of amusing actually. They were both fairly quiet and serious looking, in a conversation with one of them you never quite knew what they were thinking or how serious they were being. Like, there were a couple of times where Pein said something that was supposed to be sarcastic and I wouldn't even have realized if I hadn't already sussed that the best way to figure it out was to watch for Konan's reaction to whatever he'd said. If she smiled, it was sarcasm. The really interesting thing was watching when the two of them actually spoke to each other.

They didn't seem to need to say an awful lot, their sentences were short and to the point, but even someone as romantically unaware as me could tell that there was a lot more being communicated than just the words they said. They were also less facially expressive when they were just talking between the two of them, but watching it felt like watching two people talk in a shared language. They understood each other in a way that nobody else really did.

It was sweet really, and I was, bizarrely, feeling a little jealous. I mean, that's what you're looking for in a relationship isn't it? That complete connection, to the extent that you actually share a wavelength that nobody else can access. Or maybe I'm not making any sense. I remember the one time I tried to talk about that with Ten Ten she just looked a little confused and said she didn't want her relationships to be about excluding everyone else.

Well whatever, when I eventually find a guy who understands what I'm talking about I guess I'll know I've found my soul mate. Or something like that.

Another great thing about hanging out at Pein's house was that it felt like a whole other world, completely separate from the rest of my life. I was there for hours without once thinking about any of the issues that had been running through my head every available moment. It was flipping fantastic, not to have to worry about things I had no control over. I wouldn't have thought the three of us would have much to talk about, but Pein had a pretty comprehensive knowledge of Konoha High so school was an easy topic, and we moved on after a while to movies we'd seen lately, then music and how it can reflect and affect your mood. Pretty deep stuff, right? I know, I was impressed with myself too.

I don't know what time it was when there was a knock at the door. Konan went to answer it and Pein stopped what he was saying about his favourite band when he was my age in order to watch my reaction. My reaction to what? I hear you ask. Well, my reaction to Deidara suddenly entering the room.

He looked at me, his face solemn, and walked over to stand by the other end of the sofa.

"Uh... hi," I said, wondering, as you might be yourself, what he was doing there.

"Hey."

Jeez, why didn't he just sit down? Did he think I'd kick him or something if he tried to sit on the same sofa as me?

Pein stood up, "We'll leave the two of you to chat," Konan following him out of the room.

Deidara shifted slightly from one foot to the other and I sighed.

"You can sit down y'know. I don't bite."

"Yeah... I was just... I think I want to apologize first, hn."

I looked at him expectantly but he just fidgeted uncomfortably. "Well then?"

"I'm sorry about the other night, yeah. I was out of line," he spoke in a rush, "I don't really think you still like Shikamaru, I'm just worried that he's more your type than I am and I don't know why he wouldn't like you when you're so fantastic."

He scratched behind his ear, turning his face away slightly. "I guess I just thought that if he looked like he was going to ask you out you might realize that you and him would make a much better couple than you and me."

Wow. And Sasori said he was bad at apologies.

I stood up, reaching out a hand to touch the side of his face lightly. He turned back towards me, a questioning look in his eyes.

"I really like you," I said bluntly, "more than I ever liked Shikamaru. That isn't going to change unless you do something to change it."

"I thought I already did, yeah."

"I was really hurt after what you said, but if you'd just called me you would have known that I wasn't pissed off."

Deidara chuckled, leaning forward to kiss me on the forehead. "I guess I was a bit of an idiot."

"I guess you were. Now how are you going to make it up to me?"

The wicked grin that spread across his face was more than enough to make me feel a million times better. "Oh, I can think of a few ways, hn."

I'll spare you the details of the next few minutes, let's just say that when Pein came back in I had a little readjustment of clothing to do. (Only my shirt – don't go getting ideas!)

"I suppose you two have made up then?" Pein observed, the barest hint of a smile pulling at the corners of his mouth. Deidara and I exchanged looks and nodded in answer. "Well that's good. Ino, do you want a lift back home?"

Good point. "What's the time?"

"About two o'clock."

"Okay, well I'd better just go back to school. If I'm home early again mum will freak."

Deidara stood up, stretching. "I can take her if that's okay with you, Pein."

"You want to borrow my car?"

"Well I wasn't going to give her a piggy-back ride, yeah."

Pein shrugged and fished his car keys out of his pocket, tossing them to Deidara. "See you later then."

/\/\/\/\

"See? Told you he's a good guy," Deidara seemed in pretty high spirits as we drove back towards Konoha High.

"I have to agree with you on that. He's pretty cool."

"He called me you know. To let me know you were there, hn," I wondered when he'd done that. Maybe when he was in the kitchen. "What did you guys talk about?"

"Oh, all sorts of stuff," I leaned back in my seat, "he told me about the idea behind the Akatsuki."

"Right? And what did you think, hm?"

"It seemed a bit... over the top, somehow. Although I guess it makes sense in terms of its goal. And I can see why it would work."

"My sentiments exactly."

I shifted round in my seat to face him, "So why didn't you want to join?"

"A few reasons. It seemed ridiculous, for one thing. Then there's the fact that if I joined it meant committing to taking over the family business when I'm older, yeah. I'm not really into the idea of heading up a company."

"Fair enough."

"Hey," Deidara took advantage of a red light to look directly at me, "did you really think we'd broken up?"

I looked out of the passenger window, watching a cyclist blatantly go right through the light. "I didn't know what to think," I pointed out, "because you didn't contact me to tell me."

"You could have called me, yeah."

"You were the one who flipped out and practically accused me of emotionally cheating on you!" I caught Deidara's grimace out of the corner of my eye and smiled. "I thought we were kind of in limbo, I guess. Like our relationship status depended on how our next conversation went. And the longer the silence went on, the more ominous the idea of that conversation was."

"Makes sense. Now, how about some updates, hm? What developments have there been in your life?"

"Let's see... I had a chat with Sakura this morning."

"How did that go then?"

I filled him in on the details of that delightfully unproductive argument over her boyfriend and he frowned sympathetically.

"The old offer's still open, if you want me to knock some sense into the little brat, yeah."

I laughed, "Nice, and I might just take you up on that. It may be our only option," We pulled up to the school and I hopped out. "Are you coming in or heading straight back to Pein's?"

"I'm going back. The only lesson I'm really interested in is art, and we missed that already, hn."

"In that case, I'll talk to you later," I waved him off and went indoors, making my way to Spanish.

The minutes ticked by, taking twice as long as normal to pass, and I eventually found myself waiting outside Orochimaru's classroom next to Hinata.

"Why didn't you tell me last night that you had detention as well?"

She looked sheepish, "My parents were nearby. I didn't tell them."

"Wow, rebellious! Aren't they going to realize when you turn up home an hour late?"

"Probably not," Hinata replied with a faint smile, "I'd be very surprised if they even noticed, to be honest. Have you heard from Kiba yet?"

I scowled, "No. Just some bitch calling from his phone."

"What? Did she tell you what happened to him?"

"Unfortunately not. I'm going to go round to his house after school and make sure he's alright," I took stock of the strange look on Hinata's face, part worry and part something else, something less easy to identify, "you can come too, if you like."

"Really? I wouldn't be in the way?"

"I don't see why you would be, a tiny thing like you," I teased, and was rewarded with a giggle.

Cut short by Orochimaru's dramatic entrance, slamming through the doors at the end of the corridor and spilling coffee over his hand. Hinata and I stifled grins as he bit back a swearword, shaking his scalded hand violently. He narrowed his eyes at the two of us and we straightened up, schooling our faces into looks of blank obedience.

"You two. In my classroom. Now."

"An hour with Grouchimaru," I murmured as we sat down, "is there any greater honor?"

/\/\/\/\

All we had to do was sit in silence for an hour, which actually isn't so hard when you consider the fact that both Hinata and I were getting a lot of practice at precisely that what with all the nights spent sitting and thinking about Sakura (and other assorted issues and dilemmas). Okay, so the time went agonizingly slowly, but eventually we were free and texting our respective mothers to let them know where we were.

Except I obviously had to lie to mine, saying I was just texting her from the classroom where I was still unfortunately detained. I'd never actually tried to follow the rules of a grounding before, but I was pretty sure visiting Kiba would come under the list of activities _not _allowed.

Hinata and I were knocking on Kiba's door shortly, and were let in by his sister Hana. She gave me a dirty look and told me her little brother was resting upstairs.

"If he's finally asleep, don't even think of waking him up," she finished before turning on her heel and marching off into the kitchen. I just rolled my eyes at Hinata and led the way upstairs.

Nothing Hana did to annoy me could override the relief I was feeling. Kiba was home and he was alive. That meant the two worst-case scenarios that had been on my mind were both complete fiction. I knocked gingerly on his bedroom door, half expecting to be met with snores, but instead I was answered by a groggy voice.

"Hana I swear to Kami if you're here with more fruit-"

I opened the door, "Is that how you talk to the people who try to take care of you? Where's your respect?"

"Ino!" Kiba tried to sit up, then winced and flopped back down to a horizontal position.

Hinata followed me in, picking her way carefully over his clothes-strewn floor.

"Honestly," I sighed, "when are you gonna tidy this lot up?"

"Not any time soon," Kiba retorted, "and hey Hinata. Thanks for coming."

"Oh, no problem," Hinata smiled and sat herself delicately on the edge of his bed.

"How are you?"

Kiba thought about it for a second, "Well, not great. But alive, so I could be worse!"

"What did they do to you?" I sat down on a pile of T-shirts.

Hinata looked anxious, "What actually happened? I don't think Ino has filled me in on all the details."

"Okay, I'll do the honors then," Kiba propped himself up on his elbow to talk, "Ino and I were hanging out at the park and were ambushed by Kin and her new gang. I ran off, drawing four of them after me, and Ino was chased by Kin. Now, I can't help you find out what happened to Ino because she hasn't got round to telling me yet, but I can tell you that I ran for a pretty long time before eventually getting cornered down that alley next to the video rental place."

Hinata and I both leaned forward, slightly dreading the part of the story that was obviously coming next.

"They beat me up pretty badly. Kicked Akamaru out of the way when he tried to protect me. Then they took my phone and left me there."

"How is Akamaru?" I asked, "And what about your injuries?"

"And how did you get back?" Hinata put in.

"Akamaru was dazed but pretty much unharmed, thankfully. And as for me... well, couple of fractured ribs, broken arm," he took his left arm out from under the duvet to show of his cast, "and a heck of a lot of bruising. I thought I'd broken my nose, but apparently not. In other words, it could have been a lot, lot worse. Oh, and as for getting home, Akamaru fetched Hana. I'd been running in the direction of home, the video place is only a fifteen minute walk away, so my ever-cheerful big sister picked me up in her car less than forty minutes later and took me straight to the hospital. Ino? What's up?"

I quickly wiped away the couple of tears that had crept out without permission. "You promised me you were faster than them," I accused, "otherwise I wouldn't have let you go out there first."

"Aw, Ino," Kiba tried to lift himself up a little more but fell back with a hiss of pain. Hinata got up in his place, coming over to hug me.

"I was so worried," I said through more tears, "I'm so sorry-"

"There's nothing to apologize for," Kiba interrupted fiercely, "I'm fine, you're fine, that's the outcome we both wanted. And given the crazy-ass nature of those freaks Kin's hanging out with now, we're damn lucky that we _did_ get this outcome. And as for all this," he waved his unbroken arm at himself, indicating his injuries, "I'm just glad it was me rather than you."

"Kibi," I got up and moved over, hugging him carefully to avoid hurting his ribs.

"C'mon," Kiba spoke to Hinata over my head, "may as well make this a group hug. Apparently they make you heal faster or something."

For a moment I almost laughed, like the chronically shy Hinata would be able to just up and hug a guy she's only met once! But she surpassed herself, joining the hug without so much as passing out. All the blood in her body seemed to have been concentrated in her cheeks, but I'd say it was a step forward.

We left Kiba's about twenty minutes later, both promising to come back with fun news as soon as we could. I got home as quickly as possible, letting myself in and heading upstairs before-

"Ino."

I turned around to see mum standing in the living room doorway.

"Yes mum?"

"Your school just called," Oh crap. "Where were you between nine in the morning and two thirty in the afternoon?"

Mental note: Konoha High's receptionists are a _tiny _bit more diligent than my old school's. I had no idea how I was going to talk my way out of this one.


	36. Chapter 36

_**Woot! Another update. This chapter's a little longer I think, hopefully you'll all enjoy it! Thank you to missmridvika, Ino2613, demon lilith and Aiko of the Akatsuki. Oh, and I owe deathrosekitty an apology for not having Kiba get away unharmed, I'm sorry! Now to business:**_

_**Disclaimer:**_

_**Now I've started putting this on every chapter, I sort of don't feel like I can stop. I don't own Naruto.**_

**Study In Contrasts**_**  
**_

I'm not going to lie, mum was furious. Apoplectic with rage. Extraordinarily pissed off. More than I'd ever seen her before. Here, this is just a snippet of her hour and a half rant (no, that's not an exaggeration):

"I trusted you, and it's not the fact that you skipped school, it's the fact that you said you wouldn't and did it anyway. How can I trust what you tell me if you just say whatever you think I want to hear then completely disregard it? And who were you with anyway? The receptionist said you got into a car that had just dropped off some other students, who was that? Yet another one of your new friends I don't know? What if you'd been abducted? Did you even consider the danger you could have been putting yourself into? I'm disgusted that you would be so irresponsible, and all when you knew you weren't supposed to be going out which just makes it even worse. This is just ridiculous teenage rebellion all over and I wish you'd get it into your head that when you behave so selfishly you don't help anyone, least of all yourself."

And that wasn't even the worst of it. I knew there wasn't really anything I could say in my defense, she was right after all. I'd behaved appallingly. But I couldn't find it in me to really be sorry. I felt like I was justified in my behavior. Okay, maybe I shouldn't have spent so long talking to Pein. But skipping a little less school wouldn't have changed how she felt about what I'd done. I'm not excusing my actions, just saying that I think I had a right to do what I did and mum had just as much right to be angry about it.

And boy was she angry.

Eventually she sent me to my room, "Get out of here. I'm sick of the sight of you," and I texted Deidara to fill him in on the exciting news: banned from leaving the house (except for school), banned from using the computer and although my phone hadn't been confiscated I wasn't allowed to make calls. All of this would be in place for the next two weeks and possibly longer, depending on my behavior.

I got a text back about ten minutes later, "Well, we'll still see each other at school. And two weeks will go by quickly enough. Try not to worry, she'll calm down eventually."

I could only hope so.

The next day was Saturday and I spent most of my time moping in my room. I'd been grounded loads of times before, of course, but I'd always just left through the window or simply gone off from school. I leaned my forehead against the warm glass of my window with a self-pitying sigh. You'd think that obeying instructions would be less hassle than just doing your own thing, but apparently not. Being grounded was dull.

Mum came in sometime after lunch looking irritated.

"Your father just called," she said, speaking to my bedroom wall, "he's visiting tomorrow."

She turned and left without another word.

One thing did happen to brighten up my Saturday, and that was a text from Ten Ten.

"Hey Ino, GREAT NEWS! Neji came to our dojo today, and he sparred with me, and I think he might even have been impressed! I gave him my number and said we should train together sometime. What do you think? CALL ME!!!"

I texted her back straight away, "Can't call I'm afraid, one of the conditions of my recent grounding. Fantastic news though, go you!"

So at least somebody was getting where they wanted to be.

The rest of the day passed slowly, not smoothly like a boring lesson at school but jerkily, in stops and starts. I'd look at the clock four times in ten minutes and then forget about the time for a while before realizing that a whole hour had passed. Mum barely spoke to me, even when I went downstairs to forage for food, and I tried to get on with some studying in my room so that I could feel like I was doing something productive.

As I went to bed (at ten o'clock, this grounding was turning me into someone completely unrecognizable!) I was struck by a grim fact: there was still another day of weekend to go. Just a single Saturday stuck indoors with little to no contact with the outside world was already driving me completely stir-crazy, how was I supposed to cope with another 24 hours?

Of course, I would have a little visit from my father to break up the monotony. And with that idea to cheer me up I dragged the duvet up over my head and tried to get to sleep. The more time I could spend unconscious, the faster the weekend would go. That was my theory at any rate.

I stopped myself from fully waking up for as long as I could the next morning, finally drifting downstairs for breakfast at almost half past eleven. Mum was at the table looking frazzled.

"Ino, your dad's arriving in two hours. Unfortunately I have to go out... work emergency... so I'll see you later. Around seven," she downed the last of a cup of coffee and got up, sweeping out of the room and upstairs.

It was weird, I mused as I sat down with a bowl of sugar puffs, how little it bothered me that mum wasn't talking to me. I mean, I wasn't enjoying it, but I was hardly a wreck. It was bugging me a little, but mostly because if I'm not talking to someone I prefer it to be because _I'm _not talking, rather than being the one being ignored. The thing that upset me the most was that I felt I'd let her down. I'd meant to stick to her rules, I really had, but what can you do? She was right, in a way. Every time we stayed on good terms for longer than a couple of weeks I seemed to do something to mess it up. I can just imagine what a psychologist would make of that.

I dumped my empty bowl in the sink, thought a moment, then rinsed it out and left it on the side to dry. Then I went up to my room to get ready.

An hour and a half after mum left it was time for dad to arrive. He greeted me with an enormous grin as I opened the door, holding his arms out for a hug. I just snorted and stepped back, leaving him space to come in. He just laughed.

"What are you inviting me in for? Come on, let's go get some lunch, I'm starving."

"Well come in then, we have food. You may not have heard, but I'm grounded."

Dad frowned, "Grounded? Yeah, your mum mentioned something about that. I'd rather take you out though."

Naturally. Anything to go against mum's wishes.

"I don't want to upset her again," I said firmly, "Come in or go away, it's your call."

He replied with a knowing smirk, "But you want to come out, don't you. I know you, being stuck in there must be driving you up the wall. Come out, she doesn't have to know."

I resisted the urge to slump against the door frame. He could read me ridiculously easily. And what did that say about me? Dad stood his ground, watching me run through the likely outcomes of my possible choices.

"Fine," I groaned, grabbing my coat, "We have to be back by half five though. Mum gets back at six."

Yeah, I know she said seven. But if I told dad we had to be back by seven he'd think that meant half seven. Better safe than sorry.

We went to Pizza Express this time, despite dad gazing longingly at Burger King as we passed. If we were going to make a habit of eating out together I didn't want to encourage him to think fast food was always going to be on the menu. We chatted briefly about school, and then dad asked the inevitable.

"Why are you grounded, exactly?"

"Uh... skipping school. Twice. Amongst other... smaller offenses."

"Nice," dad leaned back on his chair looking, of all things, proud. "What kind of mischief did you get up to?"

And how bad was it that I sort of wanted to tell him? To exaggerate, even, for his approval? I fought that particular whim for all of four seconds.

"The first time was to hang out at the park with my friend. But then we got kind of ambushed by this girl and her friends," I checked dad's expression for concern or even mild reproach but he just looked intrigued, "My friend and I split up, some of them chased him and one of them chased me. I got away with just a twisted ankle."

"And your friend?"

"He... didn't," I admitted, "he's got a couple of broken ribs and a broken arm."

Dad looked alarmed.

"_Fractured _ribs," I corrected myself, and he rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, that's so much better. Why were they after you?"

Actually, that was a good question. I thought about it for a moment. Kimimaro had said they only expected to find Kiba there, so they weren't looking for me to pass on that message to Deidara. That had come later. Which meant she was just targeting Kiba. Which was weird, because I didn't think he'd done that much to her. Not as much as I had anyway. So she had Kiba beaten up as badly as he was for just not being her friend anymore? I wasn't sure I wanted to even consider what she might have in store for me in that case.

"Got an answer yet?"

I looked up, a little startled. I'd forgotten where I was for a moment. "Oh. No. They weren't after me though, they were looking for my friend."

"I see. Hanging out with the dangerous types are you?"

Dangerous types? I thought of Kiba on Friday, wrapped up in casts and bandages and still trying to make me feel better, and suddenly had to blink back tears.

"Whoa there," dad held up a hand, "I'm really not good with crying women."

"I'm not going to cry," I said hotly.

"Just got something in your eye? Well, that's okay then," dad grinned and passed me a napkin. "Take that. Just in case you get anything else in there."

"You're annoying," I muttered, scrubbing at my eyes with the rough tissue.

"I do my best."

We left the restaurant after about an hour and meandered down the high street, looking in the shop windows for the worst clothing combinations. Then I saw Kin.

She was standing outside the cinema, just fifteen meters or so ahead of us, talking to Tayuya. Dad sensed the change in my mood instantly and looked at me, concerned. I stared for a moment at the two girls, long enough to be sure they hadn't seen me yet, then turned around. I grabbed dad by the wrist and tugged him after me.

"Wait, Ino, what's wrong?"

"Shut up," I hissed, and he looked alarmed. I spoke as quietly as I could without being inaudible over the other chatter around us, "I just spotted two of the girls who I ran into the other day. I don't think they saw us, but-" I broke off as I suddenly found myself standing in front of another face from the forest.

"Hello Ino," his voice was low, with the usual lack of recognizable emotion.

"Hey Kimimaro," I responded weakly.

"And who's this?" Dad asked, not sure whether he was supposed to be friendly or not towards the newcomer.

"Well, he's a," a what, exactly? Not a friend, but clearly not an enemy either. Not an ally. An acquaintance? Is that what you call someone who spent five minutes holding you down on the forest floor before letting you 'escape'?

"I'm a friend of a friend," Kimimaro supplied, "unfortunately I can't stand around, I'm meeting people."

"Don't tell them I said hi," I said lightly, and the corner of Kimimaro's mouth quirked up in a half-smile.

"No need to worry about that."

"Well, see you around," I lifted a hand in a rough approximation of a wave and pulled dad away down the street.

"What the hell was that?" Dad complained, "I have to say Ino, that boy looked very peculiar. Is he on something?"

"Dunno. Look, he's friends with those two girls. But if it wasn't for him, I wouldn't have got off so lightly the other day," I paused thoughtfully, "I'm still not entirely sure what side he's on, but I don't think he's against me as such."

"Well that's something. Maybe you can encourage him onto your side and have an ally in the enemy camp."

I laughed, "I'll consider it."

Dad dropped me off at home at six twenty (what did I tell you?) and looked relieved to see that mum's car wasn't in the driveway.

"Guess she's late back."

"I guess so," I agreed. "I'll see you, what, next week?"

"I'll check my diary. Do I get a hug this time?" He opened his arms, looking hopeful.

"Nope. You're gonna have to work harder to earn that privilege."

He didn't seem too crushed, laughing it off and promising he'd do his best. I waved him off and went inside, surprised to find myself smiling fondly. It had been an unexpectedly fun day, despite the stress of almost running into Queen Cow Kin.

/\/\/\/\

I can't tell you what a relief it was to leave the house, legitimately, to go to school on Monday morning. Fresh air, the sunshine and best of all, double sports first thing. I know what you're thinking: Best of all? She must be joking. Actually, this isn't even sarcasm. After having to endure the oppressive atmosphere of my house all weekend I was truly looking forward to kicking the crap out of somebody.

And then I was partnered up with Sakura, effectively squashing my good mood.

I tried not to notice her dull, sunken eyes or the edge of the bruising visible past the end of her shirt. I couldn't help but notice that she was a lot slower than usual. At first I tried to go easy on her, not wanting to take advantage, but it seemed the more gentle I was the less fight she put up.

A rush of rage overtook me without warning. I don't know where it came from, or why, but it was like glass smashing. Abrupt. Violent.

I threw a punch with sudden speed, blocking her own feeble attempt at a side kick and using it to unbalance her. A swift kick to the solar plexus sent her falling to the floor in a heap. It didn't end there.

Every time she got up I beat her down. I didn't use any more force than was necessary, angry as I was I wasn't actually looking to hurt her. I just used the techniques I'd been learning for months to drop her, quickly and effectively. As the lesson progressed an interesting thing happened though.

Some kind of fire crept back into her eyes.

I don't know if it was the competitive side of what we were doing, or the physical pain I was causing, or surprise that I wasn't being kind anymore. Whatever it was, she started to fight back. Clumsily at first but with increasing confidence. The first time she managed to send me sprawling she stood above me with a tiny smile of satisfaction on her face.

I got up and grinned at her, "Oh, it's on now."

And she laughed in response, getting into the start position.

We sparred all lesson and when I saw Gai getting ready to blow the final whistle I grabbed Sakura by the arm, right where I knew the worst of the bruising would be. She winced and shot me a dirty look.

I leaned in close, "Why don't you fight back like that with Sasuke?"

Then Gai blew his whistle and I walked away, back to the changing rooms.

In my free period later I hung out in the common room with Deidara and Sasori. Our conversation turned to one of the few topics we all found equally interesting: the Akatsuki. Obviously I hadn't been able to talk about it before, since I was still being kept ignorant, but now Pein had seen fit to share the whole story it seemed I was a kind of honorary member, free to ask whatever I felt like.

"So Sasori," I asked after hearing about his family's puppet company, leaning against Deidara's side, "how did you feel about joining the Akatsuki?"

"The idea interested me," he replied after a short pause, "although I wonder at the motivation behind it."

"I thought you knew all that stuff about the business... company... alliance... thing?"

"Yes, I mean beyond that."

"I agree," Deidara put in, fiddling with a few strands of my hair, "I bet Pein has something he's going to want us all to do, yeah."

"Does that bother you?" I shifted round to look at his face.

Deidara smiled, "Nah. If I don't want to do it I won't do it, hn. And he's not a bad person, it's hardly going to be some terrible, evil plot."

"Something I was thinking about," I remembered, "Deidara, you were reluctant enough to join that Itachi had to fight you. Now, that seems a little OTT to me, given that Pein's all about being all fair and nice."

"Clearly Deidara was invaluable," Sasori commented drily.

"Shut up, yeah," Deidara sighed, "it was Orochimaru's idea to suggest it. Pein said that if I agreed to it then it was okay by him. Itachi forced me to agree by being such a massive jerk that I had no choice but to fight him."

"Okay, I'll buy that, and what's your opinion – both of you – on this:" I relayed to them Tayuya's message to the Akatsuki, and a brief back story so they knew the context.

Deidara looked alarmed, Sasori just seemed a little nonplussed.

"Why would someone just decide to compete with us, hm?" Deidara wondered aloud, "Why would anyone outside of school even know about us?"

"Don't look at me," I muttered.

"What I don't understand is the use of violence," Sasori added, "we're not a gang in the conventional sense, it's like trying to beat a golfer at boxing."

I was slightly distracted at the image of the Akatsuki members topless in opposite corners of a boxing ring but was brought back to reality with Deidara's next comment.

"What we need to think about is what Kin's going to do next, yeah," he said, his voice uncharacteristically serious, "I mean, she hasn't really got what she wants yet."

"What does she want?" Sasori asked.

"That's another thing we need to figure out, hn."

Sasori looked mildly exasperated, "So how do you know she hasn't got it?"

"Because nobody's dead yet?" I suggested, only half joking.

"Sounds like she made a good attempt of that with Kiba, yeah." a dark look passed across Deidara's face and I put a hand on his arm.

"Don't worry about him. He's tougher than he looks."

The bell rang, interrupting our conversation, and Deidara and I stood to go to art.

I waited as Deidara and Sasori exchanged goodbyes and then left, Deidara taking my hand as we got to the top of the staircase.

"I'm glad you didn't get hurt, hn."

"Me too," I was aware that I hadn't told him the whole story. As far as Deidara knew, and I'd told the story carefully to imply this, Kiba drew off the only people who were actually there, leaving me to escape without any danger. Given how possessive I now knew he could be, I wasn't sure how he'd react to the idea of me being trapped by Kimimaro. I didn't want him to do anything stupid.

"How's the grounding going?"

"It's awful," I groaned, "mum's barely speaking to me, I have nothing to do and nobody to talk to, it's boring and stuffy and just plain crap."

Deidara laughed as he opened the art room door for me. "I'll have to text you a lot then I suppose, to make things a little more bearable, hm?"

"That would help. A lot."

I was careful not to look around the room too much as I went in, nervous that if I saw Shikamaru I'd accidentally react. I wasn't worried about how Deidara would see it; I knew he'd know it was just because of the topic of our argument. What I was trying to avoid was Shikamaru feeling the need to comment on it later, which could quite possibly be very dangerous for his health.

Deidara and I sat next to each other, leaning into each other and talking quietly while we waited for the lesson to start.

/\/\/\/\

We waited outside school together for Pein to pick Deidara up. Hinata came past, pausing briefly.

"Ino, have you spoken to Kiba today?"

I shook my head, "The terms of my grounding included no calls, remember? And since Kiba lost his phone I can't text. It's doing my head in, not knowing how he is. Why?"

"Well, I was just thinking that I could go and get an update for you."

"Sure," I nodded, "that sounds like a good idea. Do you know his address?"

"I don't remember the house number."

"Here, I'll write it down," I fished a pen out of my bag and ripped a section off my Spanish homework sheet, scrawling the address. "Text me, will you?"

Hinata nodded, "I will. See you tomorrow, and you Deidara."

We watched her walk off, weaving easily between groups of chattering friends as she made her way down the road.

"She's sweet, hn."

Deidara let out a mock gasp of pain as I elbowed him playfully in the side, "Don't you go giving me a reason to get all jealous!"

"What are you implying, hm? That _I've_ ever displayed signs of jealousy?"

"Oh no, that's right, you'd never behave in such a way would you?" I laughed, "I suppose I must be getting you confused with my other boyfriend."

"Yeah, I really wish you'd stop doing that," he kissed my neck lightly, "it kind of makes a guy feel unloved."

The honk of a car horn jolted us out of our little world and I looked up, scanning the cars for Pein's. I didn't find it, discovering instead my mother's not-so-smiling face behind the wheel of the nearest vehicle. Frozen with surprise it took me a little while to understand why she looked so incensed. Then I realized how I was standing: leaning back against Deidara's chest, both of us against the wall, his arms loosely around my midriff.

"Shit," I muttered, pulling reluctantly away from him.

"What is it?"

"I don't know if I mentioned this, but along with the grounding mum kind of forbade me to see you."

Deidara looked put out, "Why? What did I do, yeah?"

"She assumed I was with you that day in the forest," I picked up my bag, slinging it over my shoulder, "I'm really sorry. Text me?"

For a moment I was worried he wasn't going to say anything, but then his face broke into a grin and he nodded. "Course I will. Try and sort out this little misunderstanding, hn. It'll make things pretty difficult when your grounding's over otherwise."

"I'll see what I can do," I promised, "see you tomorrow."

"See you."

Turning towards the car, and getting another look at mum's expression, I couldn't help but wonder if there was any point getting her to allow me to see Deidara. At the rate I was going I'd be grounded for the rest of my natural life anyway.

I slid into the passenger seat, dumping my bag by my feet and doing my seat belt up. "What are you doing here, mum?"

"I texted you earlier," she said, irritated, "didn't you read the message? I'm going to pick you up from school most days now. Sometimes it will be impossible, and I have to go back to work afterward, but I think it's for the best."

I bit back a sarcastic comment and sat there, beginning to seethe. Great, so now she was going to treat me like a little kid.

"I'll let you know when I can't make it, but that shouldn't be too often."

"I'd say thank you, but you're clearly not doing it for my benefit."

Okay, I probably should have bitten that one back as well. Mum turned steely eyes on me, "Don't start, Ino. We haven't even talked about Deidara yet."

"Yeah, I had a think about that-"

"You agreed you wouldn't see him."

"Oh for the love of-"

"You _agreed _you wouldn't see him."

I tilted my head backwards, looking at the car roof, "I can't exactly help seeing him since we do actually go to the same school."

"Very mature, Ino. Listen, I only say this because I want to keep you-"

"He wasn't even the one I was in the forest with!" I burst out, "It wasn't him! So banning me from seeing him is completely pointless!"

Mum sighed, "Really, I'd rather try to have a sensible conversation about this than have you try and make up any old excuse."

"Are you trying to say I'm lying?"

"Well aren't you?"

"No."

She looked at me, confused, "So who were you with?"

"... Kiba."

Silence. "Oh. Well, I'll have to think about that, and I'll be checking with his mum to make sure you're telling the truth this time," we pulled up in front of the house and got out of the car. "And you're still grounded," mum added, as if I might have forgotten.

"And don't I know it," I replied sourly, getting my phone out.

Sure enough, there was the text from mum, "I'm picking you up after school today. Wait outside the main entrance."

And another text, this one from my most favouritest person.

"u wana talk? alrite by me. u name th plce. il b ther.

-Kin"


	37. Chapter 37

_**Hello again! This chapter is a talky one, sorry about that, but I like to think it serves a purpose! The next chapter should be up pretty soon, I actually just need to edit it. Thanks are owed, as usual, to Aiko of the Akatsuki, demon lilith and missmridvika. The fact that I'm uploading this at one in the morning because I just now finished editing it is just further evidence of how much I 3 you guys. Hope you enjoy.**_

_**Disclaimer:**_

_**I don't own Naruto.  
**_

**Study In Contrasts**_**  
**_

Mum came into my room as I was going to bed that night.

"I just talked to Kiba's mother," she said, standing by my desk, "she confirmed that he was with you."

"Well, that's because he was," I can't say I was overly interested in what she had to say. Either she was apologizing for not believing me, which I didn't care about because I wouldn't have believed myself in her shoes, or she was here to continue her lecture. 'You were telling the truth this time, but blah blahdy blah'. Which, you know, I also didn't really feel the need to hear.

"She also told me how badly hurt he was," mum glanced up at me to gauge my reaction. I just looked impassively at her. She opened and closed her mouth a couple of times, not really sure what to say. Or, perhaps more accurately, not sure how to say what she wanted to say without annoying me.

I took pity on her, "Look, I wasn't in that much danger. I don't think they'd beat up a girl that badly. People have principles."

Okay, so it was a complete lie, but if it made her feel better...

"What happened?"

"I told you in the car."

"You didn't give me any details."

"I don't really want to think about it to be honest," I said frankly, "it was terrifying."

Mum looked concerned, "Then it's probably even more important that we talk about it."

"I don't see why." She came and sat down on the bed, ignoring my narrowed eyes and folded arms. "You're not going anywhere, are you." She shook her head.

"Why didn't you say anything when I picked you up?"

"It had only just happened," I pointed out, "and you were mad at me. It didn't really seem the best time."

"And what about now?" She smiled encouragingly.

"What about now?"

"Is now a good time to tell me?"

"Mum... I was going to go to sleep."

A flash of hurt passed across her face but she smiled. "Okay, maybe another time," she leaned over to quickly kiss my cheek. "Good night Ino."

I watched her go, wishing I could have just told her. I hadn't been lying though, when I said I didn't want to think about it. Remembering how scared I had been, trapped and waiting for Kin to show up, made me feel it all over again, which was obviously not a lot of fun. Plus telling her the whole story would mean admitting to the genuine risk of injury that I'd been playing down just moments before. Oh, and I didn't want to accidentally let slip that the girl who was sending her gang after me and my friend was the same girl who had crashed my party and left me with a broken head.

So really, not telling her the truth was doing her a favor. Anyway, I had the Kin situation under control. Pretty much.

I got my phone out to re-read her message from earlier.

_u wana talk? alrite by me. u name th plce. il b ther._

Not exactly what you'd call friendly. Although on the other hand, compared to her other recent texts, fairly non-threatening. So maybe this was her way of agreeing to have a peace talk while still asserting her authority?

Or maybe it was her way of getting me somewhere alone so that she could beat me to a bloody pulp. Hard to say.

I went through my inbox, looking for Hinata's text from earlier.

"Hey, Kiba's pretty tired today but otherwise fine. The painkillers are doing their job, he says his ribs don't hurt at all most of the time. He asked after you, but his sister didn't. She seemed happy you weren't there. You'll have to tell me why that is sometime. See you!"

I'd sent her a text back thanking her for the update. Another nice text had been the one I got from Deidara just as I finished eating dinner.

"I'm planning the best date for when you're released from being grounded. In the meantime, how are you coping with solitary confinement?"

I'd sent back a brief message, "Not too bad. Just a little bored, and really wishing I could see you." It felt a little weird saying that, not because it wasn't true or anything but because it just seemed kind of pathetic. I didn't have to worry about it for long though, he sent a reply within the next twenty minutes.

"I can empathize with that, I always wish I could be with you. Just think: 14 hours till double art. And at least 8 of those should be spent asleep!"

I'd laughed at that. If only I could get eight hours of sleep in a night! Aside from that though, the text was incredibly sweet. It always surprised me a little that somebody as generally light-hearted and flippant as Deidara was happy to be so open about his feelings. Unless of course he was lying, saying what he thought I wanted to hear...

I pushed that thought aside as I got into bed. I trusted him and I trusted that he genuinely liked me. I turned over and my gaze fell to the lovely clay flower, still standing its glass by my lamp.

I rolled over again to face the wall, and let the nightly think-fest begin.

/\/\/\/\

The next morning dawned cloudy and grey, but unusually warm. I got dressed slowly, the combination of dull weather conditions and a grand total of four hours of sleep making me lethargic and grumpy.

I grabbed some toast and headed off early, texting Hinata from the bus.

"When are you likely to get to school?"

Not paying much attention to the now-familiar route, I let my head rest against the window. It was unexpectedly cool, and even the jolting of the crappy suspension couldn't do anything about the fact that I was feeling really quite comfortable. In fact, almost comfortable enough to just... doze off... right there...

Someone was shaking me. Someone was... talking to me?

"Ino, Ino?" I was taking a little while to place the voice, "This is our stop, wake up!"

And then, muttered, "Troublesome."

I jolted awake, a hand flying up to check my hair out of instinct. "Shikamaru?"

"Come _on_," he hauled me to my feet and half dragged me off the bus.

"Sorry about that," I said with a nervous laugh, tucking some stray blond strands behind my ear.

"You fell asleep. On the bus."

"Yes? What about it?"

Shikamaru shrugged, "Nothing. It just seems weird."

"Oh really?" I rolled my eyes, "This from the guy who sleeps in art lessons."

"It's not like I have anything better to do," he retorted, starting to walk towards school. "How are things with you and Deidara?"

Oh yeah. I wasn't technically supposed to be talking to Shikamaru. But that was just something Deidara said when he was mad, wasn't it? He didn't really expect me to stop talking to my friend? I remembered the look of fury on his face and shivered involuntarily. Actually, it was quite possible that he did expect me to.

And even if he didn't, if it bothered him maybe I ought to give it a shot? Relationships are about compromise after all.

"Um, Ino?"

"Mm?" I looked up to see Shikamaru frowning at me.

"You just spaced out there for a moment."

"Mmm," I nodded, turning away slightly.

"... Right then," Out of the corner of my eye I saw Shikamaru shake his head slowly and face forwards.

We walked the rest of the road in silence.

Once I got up to the common room I checked my phone and discovered that Hinata would be arriving in less than five minutes. Which was good for me because I was more than half an hour early and, not counting Shikamaru, completely alone.

I made a big show of reorganizing my bag (twice) before Hinata showed up to put me out of my misery.

"Hey Ino," she sat down next to me, "how are you?"

"Pretty tired but not too bad. You?"

"Oh, the same."

"Thanks again for sending me that text when you went to see Kiba."

Hinata smiled, "It's my pleasure."

"No, seriously," I glanced down at my shoes, "you're pretty much my only way of getting information on how he's doing. I really appreciate that."

"Do you want to know something funny?"

"Go on."

"He was saying almost the exact same thing."

I laughed, "Well there you go. How does it feel to be so in demand?"

"Pretty strange actually," Hinata said seriously, "I'm not used to being considered useful."

My eyes widened slightly in sympathy and I reached over to hug my poor under-loved friend.

"Your family is crazy," I said with feeling.

"Thank you. But let's talk about something a little more interesting, like... Deidara?"

"In what way is that interesting to you?" I asked, but just hearing his name had been enough to put a stupid grin on my face.

"For one thing Kiba was asking how you two are getting along. And for another, if it's interesting to you it's interesting to me!"

It didn't take much to persuade me. I gave in and showed her the texts from the night before, enjoying her obvious admiration of my adorable boyfriend.

"He's very sweet, isn't he," Hinata commented.

"You sound surprised," I teased, "should I be offended?"

"Well I suppose I am a little surprised. I mean, do you remember when he used to be mean to Naruto? Just at the beginning of this year... and look at him now!"

I narrowed my eyes at her.

"What? Sorry, are you upset that-"

"No, I'll tell you what I noticed about that sentence," Hinata looked apprehensive, "I noticed that you didn't stutter at all, didn't so much as blush, when you said Naruto's name."

Now she blushed. "Oh, well, yes... I... Naruto... you see..."

"Don't you like him anymore?"

"I _do_," she said firmly, "just... maybe not as much."

I raised my eyebrows, "Well I never. What brought this on then?"

"He obviously likes Sakura."

I waited for further reasoning.

"And... I don't know... it's just..."

And I waited for her to finish a sentence.

"I've liked him for a long time now..."

"Yes? And?"

Hinata looked up at me quickly, flicking hair out of her eyes as she did so. "I suppose," she said quietly, "I'm sort of growing up." she smiled suddenly and I saw a kind of confidence in her eyes that I'd never seen before.

"That's cool," I said, holding up a hand. "High five?"

Hinata giggled but slapped my hand enthusiastically.

"I think we ought to make a record of this day," I said solemnly, "as Hinata's coming of age or something."

"Don't be silly," she said, her face turning red. So maybe she wasn't completely changed yet.

Thank goodness!

/\/\/\/\

I met Deidara down in the art room five minutes before the start of the lesson. The moment he saw me he smiled widely, grabbing me in a bear hug.

"How are you, hm? How did you sleep?"

"I'm okay, barely slept at all though."

"That's probably because your brain works too fast," he pushed my hair back from my forehead as if he could see the speed it was running. "Yep. Way too fast, hn."

"I'll bear that in mind," I stood on tiptoes to kiss him and he responded eagerly, tightening his arms around me.

"You smell fantastic," Deidara murmured against the skin of my cheek. Not exactly X-rated, but for some reason it made me blush. Deidara noted this with some amusement, "cute, yeah. I don't often get to see you blush."

"Oh shush," I kissed him quickly to shut him up.

We moved away from each other abruptly as the door opened, although I noticed Deidara didn't fully remove both his arms, leaving one hand on the small of my back. Shikamaru came in, acknowledging the two of us with a brief nod.

Not much later the class started to fill up and everyone took their seats, knowing Kakashi wouldn't show up for at least fifteen minutes. Deidara looked pensive as we sat down.

"Do you often have trouble sleeping? Hn."

"Yeah, pretty much every night," I let out a short laugh.

"Got a lot on your mind I guess, yeah."

I counted them off on my fingers, "Kin, Sakura and Sasuke, my mum, my dad... some of them I think of more than others but that's about everyone," I felt another smile tugging at the corners of my mouth, "and there's you of course, but that's far less unpleasant."

Deidara raised an eyebrow slowly, "Is that so, hm?" A grin spread over his face, smooth as honey, "In that case maybe the best way to help you sleep is to... encourage the more enjoyable thoughts."

"Now that sounds like fun."

Unfortunately we were interrupted by the classroom door opening and Kakashi backing into the room, arms full of new canvases for the painters in the class.

"Sorry I'm late," he said, not sounding even slightly apologetic, "I got held up when my car's engine unexpectedly cut out in the middle of town..."

"Yeah right, Kakashi!"

"Pull the other one!"

"We all get here on time, why can't you?"

"What a slacker!"

Deidara and I contributed our own gibes, then settled down with our respective art projects. Finalizing a sketch for another point of view piece I felt a rare sense of being on top of my life. I internally laughed at myself.

_Better enjoy it while it lasts!_

I left the school building that afternoon with Hinata, checking the cars assembled in the road for my mum's.

"Are you going to see Kiba today?" I asked hopefully.

"I hadn't decided yet," she replied, "why? Would you like me to?"

"Only if you want to," I said quickly, "I mean, I'd love to know how he is but if you'd rather not bother-"

"No, it's fine. I like spending time with him."

I thanked her quickly but had to run off, seeing mum come around the corner. "See you tomorrow!" I called over my shoulder, coming to a halt by the car.

"Good day today?" Mum asked as I got in.

"Yeah, you?"

"Not bad."

My phone buzzed and I fished it out of my pocket, finding a text from Ten Ten.

"I'm going to Neji's house tomorrow afternoon for sparring practice!! Can you believe it?!?!"

I couldn't actually. It seemed so unlike the cold, antisocial boy I'd come to see him as. But hey, anything was possible. Maybe he just had a soft spot for Ten Ten? I typed in a reply.

"That's fantastic! Are you going to tell him how you feel?"

I got a message back moments later.

"I don't know. What do you think?"

Good question. I thought about it all the way back, not answering until I got up to my room at home.

"I think it might be your best bet. Either he does like you, in which case great, that's the end of it. Or he doesn't but you telling him makes him see you in a new light. Or he doesn't but he decides he may as well give it a go and then sees how fantastic you are and falls head over heels in love. Or, the grim possibility, he doesn't and that doesn't change even after you tell him. But that last one is the worst case scenario, and even if it does happen, what are the long term effects? You get over him and find someone even better. So all in all, it's win-win-win-win if you tell him."

While I was on my phone I decided to send a quick text to Temari as well, "Hey, long time no see. How are things with the Kinster?"

I stared longingly out of the window. The sky outside was darkening, I knew if I went outside the air would be cool and crisp and just perfect for a night out clubbing. It would be a perfect opportunity to catch up with Ten Ten and Temari as well. But I couldn't, because I was grounded.

Slouching irritably downstairs to grab a snack, I heard mum on the phone in the living room.

"Yeah yeah, I know... Well that's easy for _you_ to say isn't it?" her voice was light, maybe even teasing. Then she giggled. I frowned where I stood, eavesdropping with absolutely no shame. "Yes... well I can try. No, not Friday. Maybe... yes, may-"

There was another pause, then she giggled again, sounding like a teenage girl.

"Uh huh, maybe Saturday... I'll have to see when Inoichi is planning to... yes..."

I smiled to myself and crept back upstairs, no longer particularly hungry. So mum had a boyfriend? Well, good for her. Come to think of it, that was probably where she vanished to on the weekends. I suddenly felt like a bit of an idiot. What work emergencies could drag a book editor into the office on a Sunday? I went back into my room, picking up my phone to check for messages.

"Kiba's still okay. His arm has been itching like crazy under the cast, but we managed to get some air down there with a hairdryer on its cold setting and he said that helped. He almost dozed off twice, but he's been getting plenty of sleep. It's probably just the painkillers making him sleepy. Akamaru was pretty energetic today, Kiba says he feels up to taking him for a walk but Hana's being way overprotective and doesn't even like him to go downstairs to fetch things. I told him about how well Deidara's treating you and he was pleased. Hope you're doing okay, see you tomorrow.

-Hinata"

It was nice to get such detailed information, though I felt a bit of a pang at the thought of the two of them trying to find ways of easing Kiba's itchy arm. I knew it was stupid and immature, but a part of me felt like Hinata was taking my place, even temporarily, as his best friend. I tried to ignore the feeling, reading my other new message.

"What time are you going to bed?

-Deidara"

I checked the time: twenty to ten. I sent a reply, "Probably around ten o'clock. Why?"

All I got back was a slightly enigmatic, "Let me know when you're getting into bed."

I couldn't help but be curious, although a part of me wondered if I was going to regret that curiosity. This was Deidara after all, Kami only knew what I could be letting myself in for. Nonetheless I got ready for bed a little early, texting Deidara back at five to ten.

"I'm in bed now."

That could be interpreted in a lot of very interesting ways. I didn't get long to think about it though, as my phone rang moments later. I picked it up, answering the call, and pressed the speaker to my ear. Deidara's voice came through, and I could hear that he was smiling.

"Right, I know you're not allowed to call people, so I'm calling you. And I know you're not allowed to talk on the phone, so you won't need to say a word, hn. Okay, so this isn't exactly obeying the spirit of the law, but I think I might be able to help you sleep and I reckon that's important enough to slightly bend the rules, yeah."

I didn't need a mirror to know that I was positively beaming as I turned off my lights and lay down in bed, the phone between the pillow and my ear. Deidara was still talking.

"Now I have a few ideas and this is the only point at which I'm going to need your input. You won't have to speak though, don't worry, hn. When I say something you like the sound of, just cough once. Now, I can just babble on about any old random crap until you get bored and fall asleep," he paused to allow me to cough if I wanted to, "I can talk about something dull but relevant to your life... I can tell you a story," I coughed then, as clearly as I could.

"Yeah, I thought you might like that one. Would you like me to make one up myself, hm?" I coughed again and he chuckled softly. "So. Once upon a time there was a girl. She was beautiful and funny and clever and any man who saw her instantly fell in love with her. Her name was, uh, Ina, and she was the princess of the kingdom of Konoha. One day she was walking through the castle and a view from one of the windows caught her eye. There was something going on just outside the castle gate and a large crowd had gathered, making it impossible to see exactly what was happening. Ina rushed outside to make sure everything was alright and when she got there she found that all the fuss was being caused by a young man and some clay, yeah. He was creating the most amazing sculptures, and everyone from the town had gathered, hoping to buy one. But this artist said that his work was not for sale, it could be seen and enjoyed and then it would be destroyed, because true art was fleeting and could only exist for a moment, hn."

I laughed sleepily at that.

"Anyway, when he saw Princess Ina he was struck by her incredible beauty, and without a word set to creating a sculpture of her. He was finished in seconds, such was his talent, yeah, and she smiled at the likeness."

It was around then that I started to drift off, lulled into sleep by the sound of Deidara's voice in my ear. I faded in and out of full consciousness, only catching the occasional sentence.

"She asked him where he had learned to sculpt like that, and he replied that..."

".. He discovered that this lovely princess had a curse that prevented her from falling asleep..."

"... And that's when the artist knew for sure," Deidara's momentary hesitation before finishing his sentence caught my attention, "that he was in love."


	38. Chapter 38

_**Sorry all, this was going to be up so much faster but then there was some kind of conspiracy amongst the English teachers at school - I got three serious essays to do this week on top of my usual homework and revision from all my other subjects. I haven't had a lot of time, but I have finally managed to get this chapter up to update-able standard! So here it is, for your enjoyment! Thank you to Aiko of the Akatsuki, demon lilith, missmridvika, loves-emo-guys-with-hair and deathrosekitty. I'd hand out cookies, but I hear they're bad for your computer, so I'll give you all virtual cake instead. Enjoy the chapter!  
**_

_**Disclaimer:**_

_**Don't own Naruto.**_

**Study In Contrasts**_**  
**_

Well I can tell you something for nothing, I wasn't asleep anymore. Had he really just said what I thought he'd just said?

"Uh," I whispered, "could you repeat that last bit?"

"Didn't quite catch it, hm?" Deidara teased.

"I don't know."

"I love you."

"... Serious?"

"Dead serious."

Oh wow. Oh _wow_.

"You're supposed to be going to sleep, yeah."

"You just told me you love me," I accused, "how am I meant to just go to sleep?"

I heard a faint snort of laughter down the phone, "Maybe I should have waited until tomorrow, hm?"

"No, this was too perfect a way of hearing it."

"I was hoping you'd think so, hn," his voice giving away his amusement. "Do you want me to carry on the story? It might take you a while to get back to sleep."

"You don't have to. I think I might be drowsy enough still that it won't take hours."

"I want to, yeah. I didn't get to the bit where the curse gets broken yet."

"Did you actually plan a whole story?"

"Of course I did," Deidara sounded affronted, "I knew that was what you'd want, and I didn't want to be making it up on the spot. Now, close your eyes and try to go to sleep, hm?"

I did as he said, trying to let my whirling thoughts settle enough for me to drift off again. Deidara carried on with the story, weaving in rival princes, dangerous monsters and funny little friendly animals to keep the plot going. After a little while of being right on the edge of oblivion I realized what was keeping me from sleep. There was something I had to say first.

"Deidara," I breathed, hearing him pause.

"Yes?"

"I love you too."

Deidara didn't speak for a couple of seconds, then he let out a short breath. "Careful," he said casually, "you're giving away the end of the story, hn."

After a little thought he picked up where he'd left off, and within seconds I was fast asleep, a smile on my face.

And woke up the next morning still smiling.

I stretched, checking my clock. Five to seven. Which meant that for the first time in weeks I'd had over eight hours of sleep in a night. I all but jumped out of bed, humming to myself as I got ready and going downstairs for breakfast with a spring in my step. My 'good morning' to mum could only be described as chirpy. No wonder she looked alarmed.

"Are you alright?"

"Yes I am," I poured myself some cereal, "I slept fantastically well," and my boyfriend said he loves me, which might have kind of contributed to my good mood.

"Well that's good," she eyed me warily as I ate, "have you got a fun day lined up at school?"

"Pretty much the same as every day. I'm looking forward to art," with Deidara.

"Okay," she stood up, still looking somewhere between concerned and suspicious, "I have to go to work, so I'll see you later."

"Cool."

"Oh, and I won't be able to pick you up after school today. I have a meeting. Have a good day," she grabbed her coat off the back of the chair and left, giving me a quick wave before she closed the front door.

A meeting? Or a date? Difficult to say, not that it mattered. What really interested me was that, for one day, I wouldn't be picked up after school. What to do with that information? I could spend time with Deidara, I could go to Kiba's house, I could meet up with Ten Ten or Temari. Oh, or I could be good and respect my mother's wishes, I could simply go home and study or something.

Yeah. Or not.

I texted Hinata on the way to school, letting her know that I had news, and then debated whether or not to tell anyone else about last night's confessions. Obviously I'd tell Kiba, and probably Temari. Ten Ten would be interested, but I'd have to pick a good moment so it didn't look like I was trying to just turn the conversation away from her and Neji. Which was a point, she'd be at his house that afternoon. That was bound to make an interesting story later.

Getting to the common room with fifteen minutes to go before the first lesson, I was ambushed by Hinata. Well, as much as Hinata can really ambush anyone. She jumped up from the beanbag she was sitting on and waved me over.

"What's your news?" She asked as soon as I was seated.

"You don't want to hear that right away, do you?" I said, totally deadpan, "Why don't you tell me about your evening first? How did you sleep last night?"

Hinata shook her head stubbornly, "Don't be like that! Just tell me. It's good news, isn't it?"

I couldn't stop myself from grinning, "Very good news indeed."

"So _tell _me!"

"Okay, okay!" I laughed, "Yesterday in art I told Deidara about how I have trouble sleeping, and so he decided, although he didn't say anything there and then, to help out. So last night he called me and, how sweet is this, told me a story until I fell asleep."

Hinata smiled, "That's really nice," but I could see that she was slightly wondering why I was making quite such a big deal out of it.

"Oh," I added, "and he told me he loves me."

Hinata's reaction. Was. Priceless.

Her pale eyes opened wide, her mouth fell open and someone must have pressed the pause button because she stayed like that for a good three seconds before finally recovering the power of speech.

"He... really?" I nodded and Hinata beamed at me, "That's amazing!"

"I know. I haven't been able to stop smiling."

"And do you, um, love him?"

"Yes," I said slowly, "well, I definitely more than like him. And I care about him more than I've ever cared about any other guy, not that I have a lot of comparisons. The fact is that I've never been in love, so I don't really know what it feels like."

I twirled the end of my ponytail round one finger, "But if I had to guess? I'd guess it probably feels a lot like I feel now."

Hinata held up a hand, her expression serious, and I frowned. "Ino, high five."

I laughed and slapped her hand, "High five indeed."

Hinata broke into giggles, unable to keep a straight face, and then the bell rang. We stood up, then I remembered something.

"Hinata, are you going to Kiba's again today?"

"Um, maybe. Why?"

"Mum's not picking me up after school today so, if you were going, the three of us could hang out."

She looked uncertain, "Aren't you still grounded?"

"Technically, yes. But I haven't seen him since, what, Friday? I haven't even been in direct communication with him. I'm used to chatting with him every other day, at _least_. So basically, yes I'm grounded, but I have my priorities."

"As long as you don't get in trouble," Hinata smiled, "but in that case wouldn't you rather go on your own? You don't want me there."

"Actually, yes I do. So if you're free, that'd be great! Now unfortunately I have to go to chemistry."

/\/\/\/\

I saw Deidara at break. Walked into the common room with Choji after Spanish and saw him sitting there, involved in a heated discussion with Sasori. Hinata, already comfortably sitting in between Shikamaru and Lee, glanced from me to Deidara and back again.

I was halfway over to Hinata when I saw Deidara turn around, lifting a hand to wave as he caught my eye. I smiled shyly and waved back, then Deidara muttered something to Sasori and stood up, coming over.

"Hey," he said as he stopped in front of me.

"Hey."

"Sleep well last night? Hn."

"Incredibly well, thanks."

Deidara ran his eyes once over the common room before taking my hand. "Come on, yeah. Let's go for a walk."

We wandered around the school, hand in hand, until we got to one of the less-used staircases. I sat down on one of the stairs and Deidara leaned against the handrail.

"Thanks for last night," I said, "you know, talking to me until I could get to sleep."

"I'm glad it worked, hn."

"And," I bit my lip, not really sure what to say next.

"Look," Deidara said after a moment, "so you know, just because I love you it doesn't mean you have to say it back, yeah. You're not obliged to. I don't mind."

"What, you don't want me to?" I looked up at him.

"Not if it's not true, hn," he was smiling, but there was a hesitant look in his eyes.

"So... if I don't actually love you, you'd rather I didn't say anything," I said slowly, and he nodded.

"Well then," I paused "I love you."

Deidara slid down the wall to sit on the same stair as me, "I love you too, yeah," he grinned and slid an arm round my waist. I let out a happy sigh, leaning my head against his shoulder. I felt him rest his head on mine and closed my eyes. I could have sat like that for hours.

I didn't, of course. We had to go to art, and then I had to get through the rest of the day without getting in trouble for my endless daydreaming. When four o'clock eventually rolled around Hinata and I met at the bus stop.

We talked a little about Deidara on the way to Kiba's house, then I told her about Ten Ten going to practice sparring with Neji.

"She might even tell him she likes him," I finished.

Hinata looked concerned, "Does he like her?"

"I don't know," I shrugged, "and neither does she. But I think she'd like to just get an answer at this point. Besides, he did invite her to his house."

"Mmm," Hinata pressed the tips of her index fingers together, something I hadn't seen her do in a while, "I don't think Neji is very socially aware," she warned.

"Yeah?"

"He may not really appreciate the implications of inviting a girl to his house," Hinata explained, "and although he may well have noticed that she has feelings for him, it won't necessarily affect his thought process. As in, he may not know of or care about the possible emotional impact on her. What I think I'm trying to say is that f she tells him she likes him and he doesn't have any feelings for her he's... unlikely to be tactful."

We got off the bus and I got out my phone, wondering if I should text Ten Ten. But maybe it would be better if she didn't know? I mean, if she just told him and got it over with? Because if I scared her out of it she'd just be back to square one, liking him from a distance, whereas if she just 'fessed up she'd find out for sure one way or the other. My mind made up I put the phone back in my bag. Besides, we'd reached Kiba's house.

Hinata led the way this time, calling out a polite 'hi' to Hana before heading upstairs. When we got up to Kiba's room he was sitting up in bed and playing with Akamaru. He looked up as we opened the door, looking surprised when I came in.

"Ino! I thought you were still grounded?"

"I am, but I made an exception. Just don't tell my mum."

"This is so cool!" Kiba got up and came over, giving me a hug. "And it's great to see you again too, Hinata."

"You must be bored of me by now," Hinata laughed, her voice a little timid.

"Not even a tiny bit," Kiba replied definitively. "Now, what are we gonna do to entertain ourselves?"

We talked about what Kiba had been up to (not much) and how his sister was being (overprotective) and how he was feeling (mostly bored) and as the three of us chatted I started to notice something interesting. And that interesting something was Hinata.

Kiba was talking at one point about dying his hair. "I think I'd like to go dark," he said, grinning, "maybe like your hair, Hinata?" He leaned over and put his head to hers, turning to me.

"Whaddya think? Does it suit me?"

I laughed, shaking my head, but my attention was captured by Hinata's fantastically red face.

"I think that... you should keep the hair colour you have now," she said, looking down and doing her index finger thing, "I, uh, think it suits you... K-Kiba."

See what I mean? A very interesting something indeed. Irritatingly, I had to leave after just half an hour. I wasn't sure what time mum was getting back and I didn't want to risk getting caught breaking the terms of the grounding. I stood up, looking expectantly to Hinata.

"Um, I was thinking I might stay here a little while longer, since I don't exactly have to get home soon," she turned to Kiba, "if that isn't a problem?"

"No, it's great to have company," Kiba replied easily, "See you soon Ino, hopefully!"

"Yeah, I'll see what I can do. Bye Hinata!"

Again. A very, _very_ interesting something.

So Hinata liked Kiba did she? I was glad that I'd noticed this time, after my ridiculously long time catching on to the fact that she liked Naruto. But I wasn't sure how I felt about the actual fact. Kiba had never really had a girlfriend, what if when he did he stopped having as much time for me? What if he liked his girlfriend more than he liked me? Then I might not be his best friend anymore!

Fine, so maybe I was being hypocritical. And getting ahead of myself too; I didn't even know whether or not Kiba was interested in Hinata. But the thought bugged me anyway.

Mum wasn't back when I arrived at home, so I'd managed to avoid that particular nightmare scenario. I went up to my room, working through some chemistry homework. At about half five mum got back, calling up a stressed hello. She probably had a tough meeting. Then at six I got a text from Ten Ten.

"I couldn't tell him, I was too nervous. But he really seemed to think I was good and he invited me back for tomorrow! Do you really think I should tell him? If you do, I will."

Oh great, leave all the responsibility to me, that's a good idea.

What was I supposed to say? I sent her a text back.

"Sounds promising. I say go for it."

Well I stuck by my earlier reasoning. She'd liked him long enough, it was about time she found out whether he'd be interested in a relationship with her or not. And if he wasn't... I'd be happy to give her a hug and remind her that he was a waste of space, and hopefully she wouldn't remember that I was the one that encouraged her to tell him. My phone buzzed and I opened the message, expecting a reply from Ten Ten.

"so much 4 wantin 2 tlk. u gona w8 around 4eva? let me no wen ur dun bin a cowrd and redy 2 meet.

-Kin"

Oh yeah, I'd managed to forget about that. I looked at the message, trying to read between the lines. I considered texting Hinata to see what she thought of it, but dismissed that idea. Hinata would just freak out, much better to simply tell her the plan, when I actually had one, and reassure her that it would all work out fine. So maybe Ten Ten? But she was all wrapped up with Neji, she wouldn't be able to focus. Temari would be a good bet, but she hadn't replied to my text the other day and if she was in a mood with me she wouldn't want to help me. Sakura was out, we hadn't spoken a word in chemistry today.

Which left me with one option really. Deidara. I started a text message, then changed my mind. I'd tell him at school, then we could have a proper discussion about the different options.

Eventually ten o'clock rolled around and I got into bed, suddenly wishing I'd thought to ask Deidara to call me again. Maybe it would have sounded a bit cheeky, but I didn't want to spend another night stressing rather than sleeping. I stared up at the ceiling, trying to find patterns in the various marks and small cracks. Like seeing patterns in the stars, but a whole lot less romantic.

Maybe it was about time I thought about Sakura's situation some more. I felt awful that I'd given up on the idea of being able to help her. Just because my life was going well for once it didn't give me a free pass to ignore my friend's problems. But then again, I reminded myself, it wasn't like I'd never tried. I'd done my best to talk some sense into her and it hadn't had any effect whatsoever. What more could I do?

Talk to Sasuke?

Oh yeah, that would work. I could just picture how that conversation would go.

"Hey Sasuke, how are you?"

"Hm."

"Great, me too. While I'm here, could I ask you a favor?"

"Hm."

"Thanks. Could you stop beating up my ex-best-friend?"

"Mind your own business, nosy bitch."

"Kay thanks, see you round!"

Yep. That would definitely fix it. I sighed, maybe it was time for me to just take Deidara up on his offer and get Sasuke beaten up himself? He could probably do with being hauled down a peg or several, and perhaps that would be enough to... to what? Piss him off to the extent that he started being even more violent?

Why was I so completely useless?

Oh. And there was that feeling again. With the logical part of my brain I noted that I hadn't had it this bad in a long time. There was just something about Sakura that could affect me like almost nobody else.

It was a familiar feeling. Like being squashed into a tight, airless space and having the walls shrink further around me, pressed so small that I just disappeared. Only I didn't disappear, it just went on and on. I was trapped. I felt tears well up in my eyes and let out a couple of experimental sobs, wondering if that would help, but all it did was make me feel even more pitiful.

I gave up on fighting it, curling up into a ball and allowing tears to run down my face, soaking into the hair that had stuck, matted, to my cheek.

Then my phone rang and I still had enough presence of mind to answer it quickly, before mum heard.

"Sorry I'm a bit late, hn. Dad held me up. You okay? Cough once for yes, twice for no, yeah."

I laughed weakly and coughed twice.

"Wait, what's up? Damn, this no talking thing is really inconvenient, yeah."

"I was just in the middle of a self-indulgent breakdown," I whispered, "nothing to worry about. Are you at your house?"

"Yeah, thought I'd give it a try. Now, as it's already," he paused to check, "half past ten, I figure we ought to get straight to the business of falling asleep, hn."

"Fine by me."

"Do you want another story, hm? Remember: cough, don't talk! I don't want your mum walking in."

I laughed again and coughed once.

"Okay then." And he was off, creating a new world where people lived in the sky, in clouds. There was something about a kid who wanted to see the land up close, and a giant rainbow colored bird, and a secret magic spell, but I lost track of the plot very quickly. I was asleep before he even got close to the ending.

/\/\/\/\

I walked into English the next day with a sense of purpose.

"What do you think of Kiba?" I asked Hinata as I sat down. I couldn't help but laugh at the blush that spread across her face, quick as a flash.

"I... wh-what do you mean? I... uh, enjoy his company."

"You like him," I said with confidence, "right? You can just say so."

"I... um," she bowed her head, "I like him."

I had thought that it might bother me, but Hinata was so sweet that I forgave her instantly. Not that she'd done anything that needed to be forgiven, but you know what I mean.

"Cool. Do you want me to find out if he likes you?" Hinata looked like she was about to faint. "Subtly of course. I could just do a little poking and prodding, see what I come up with?"

She shook her head violently, "No, Ino. There's no way I could... _date _him. So there's no need to find out if he... if he likes me."

I frowned, "Why not? I'm pretty sure you'd get over your shyness."

"It's not that."

"Then what?"

Or-ugly-maru's typically irritating timing meant that he walked in right at that moment, just as Hinata was opening her mouth to explain herself. We turned our attention to the front of the classroom as he talked us through our instructions, then I tore a page out of my notebook and scribbled across the top.

_So why is it that you couldn't date my best friend, even if he liked you back? -Ino_

The paper came back a moment later, looking like this:

_So why is it that you couldn't date my best friend, even if he liked you back?_

I frowned.

_Sorry, what? -Ino_

_I wouldn't want it to look like I was interfering in your relationship. I know you two don't have romantic feelings for each other, but I would hate it to feel like you and I were competing for his time and attention. All this is irrelevant, since the chances of him liking me are miniscule! -Hinata_

I know that first bit was pretty much exactly what I'd thought when I'd first realized Hinata's feelings, but seeing it written down made me realize how ridiculous I'd been.

_That's seriously illogical. You said it yourself: there are no romantic feelings between me and Kiba. My friendship with Kiba wouldn't impact your girlfriendship (it is so a word. As of now) with him in the slightest, and vice versa. Sometimes I'd hang out with him, sometimes you'd hang out with him, sometimes the three of us might hang out together, maybe we could even double date – I know he and Deidara get along okay. And that thing about him not liking you is also dumb. Maybe he does, maybe he doesn't, but I think the chances are much higher for the first option. You're sweet and pretty and incredibly nice, I think you'd make a great couple. And I intend to try and make it happen. -Ino_


	39. Chapter 39

_**So sorry for the delay. I've got exams coming up next week and I've been busy revising. I have finally managed to finish with this chapter, even if it is a little shorter than usual, and I've got started on the next one too so there shouldn't be another over-long gap. Hopefully. Anyways, thank you as usual to everyone who's read and reviewed, that means special mentions to missmridvika, demon lilith, deathrosekitty, Aiko of the Akatsuki, mangaanime and Nutella's Biggest Fan. Seriously, I know this probably gets boring to read, but looking through my reviews makes me want to keep writing like almost nothing else. The fact that people are actually showing an interest in this story never ceases to amaze me! And very exciting (for me at least), only five reviews away from 200! As a kind of extra thanks for getting me this far, the 200th person to review can, if they like, request a one-shot. Now, enough of my rambling! On with the chapter!  
**_

_**Disclaimer:**_

_**Weirdly, I still don't own Naruto.**_

**Study In Contrasts**_**  
**_

There was, of course, one other very important thing to do that day: finally fill Deidara in on the full extent of the Kin situation. Which unfortunately meant explaining everything that had happened in the forest. I picked my moment carefully, waiting until the point in the art lesson where everyone was involved in their own low-level conversations.

"By the way," I said at one point as Deidara reached over my page to borrow a pencil, "I need to give you a Kin update."

"Oh yeah?" He started using the point of the pencil to trace intricate designs into the wet surface of his latest sculpture. I watched for a moment, transfixed by the way the seemingly random spirals and dots took shape, forming a vague impression of eyes, a nose, a mouth... I blinked once, losing the patterns I'd seen before. Deidara had paused too, looking at me with one eyebrow raised. "You alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Sorry. I just... spaced out for a moment."

"You were saying something about Kin, hm?"

"Yes. Well. First I need to give you a little more detail about what happened the other day. You know, when Kiba got hurt."

If I didn't have his attention before, I did after that. Deidara put the pencil down and shifted in his stool slightly so that he could face me properly.

"It's nothing too serious," I reassured him, "basically, Kiba and I were in this little hideout we've had since we were like ten or something. When we heard Kin's gang turn up Kiba ran out, hoping to draw all of them off. Four followed him, but when I got out there was one left, and that one was Kin. So, yeah, she chased me for a while but I managed to lose her. Trouble was that I messed up in my escape method and hurt my ankle. I would probably have been able to get away, Kin had gone off in totally the wrong direction, but then Kimimaro caught me. I don't know if you know who he is," I looked to see if Deidara was showing any signs of recognition and drew back involuntarily.

His hands were clenched into fists, one resting on the table and the other hanging by his side, and his teeth were clenched, eyes narrowed dangerously.

"No, go on," he said slowly, "I want to hear this, hn."

"Um... okay, well, Kimimaro kept me pinne- uh... kept me there. Oh yeah, and called Kin to let her know he had me. So then we waited a while, then he decided to let me go. So I called my mum and she picked me up."

"And you didn't say this before because...?"

"I didn't want you to worry," I said, peering anxiously at him.

Deidara let out a long, slow breath, tilting his head back and closing his eyes. "You didn't want me to worry, yeah? You do realize that if Kin had actually got to you... you remember what she did to you at your party?"

"Yeah, I remember. But listen, that's not really the point. You know I'd been getting those texts from her?" Deidara's head snapped back upright, his eyes opening to look at me incredulously. I tried to laugh, "Right, maybe I didn't mention them. Well they were mostly not too bad, just a little threatening, but then about a week ago I sent her a text saying that we should talk and then she said fine, I should name the time and place. And then I forgot about it, so she sent me another text trying to say I was wimping out."

"You sent her a text... saying you should talk, hn."

I winced, "It seemed like a good idea at a time."

"So what are we going to do, hm?"

"Why did you think I was telling you?" I grinned at him, "I was hoping you'd have some ideas."

Deidara looked thoughtful, "The first thing I'm going to suggest is that you don't reply to her message. You don't want her to think she's got you scared into doing what she wants, yeah."

"Don't I look more scared if I avoid her?"

He dismissed that with an abrupt shake of his head, "No. You look like you don't care what she does or says."

"Alrighty then, I stay off the phone. Got it. Then what?"

"Let me see the texts, hn."

I got my phone out and flicked through my inbox.

_u wana talk? alrite by me. u name th plce. il b ther._

_so much 4 wantin 2 tlk. u gona w8 around 4eva? let me no wen ur dun bin a cowrd and redy 2 meet._

"Nice," Deidara snorted, passing my mobile back.

"So...?"

"I'm not sure, yeah. Let me think for a moment," he scratched the back of his neck, gazing at his sculpture as if looking for inspiration. "I think what we need to do is set up a meeting and, somehow, really show her who's boss. Preferably in front of some of her little friends, hn. But you know what really bothers me? Apart from the idea of you being in danger."

"Go on."

"That thing that other girl, Talula or whatever, said. About the Akatsuki."

"Why does that bother you?"

"Because it doesn't make sense, and it implies that there's something more going on here than just Kin's psychotic power games, yeah. And if that is the case, showing her up in front of her pals will only add fuel to the fire."

I shrugged, "I'm not sure I'm entirely following your logic but I'm happy to bow to your superior understanding of gang mentality."

"I'm not in a gang," he said irritably, "the Akatsuki isn't a gang."

"Psh. Semantics."

"I'm trying to help you here, yeah," he pointed out, and I laughed, taking his hand.

"I know, I'm sorry. But you're more in a gang than I am."

Deidara looked as though something had just occurred to him, "True... but you know Kin much better than I do. Weren't you best buddies once, hm?"

"I wouldn't say _best _buddies..."

"But you were friends?"

"Ye-es," I frowned, "I never understood her though. Nobody understands Kin, not even Kin. The people closest to her just learn the best ways to avoid her wrath."

"A lesson you seem to have completely forgotten, hn."

I rolled my eyes, "It's flipping hard work not pissing her off. Virtually impossible. But while we're talking about my expertise in the area of Kinonomics, I may as well point out that ignoring her text is not exactly going to please her."

"We're not aiming to please her," Deidara stated, stretching his arms out in front of him and going back to his sculpture, "we're aiming to beat her, yeah."

/\/\/\/\

At home that evening I kept watching my phone, waiting for some kind of message from Kin. I sort of felt like the sheer fact of me talking about her would make her text me, like she had some kind of alarm go off when her name was mentioned. No, I'm not saying that I thought she had some kind of sixth sense. I wouldn't think something like that. That would be stupid...

But moving on.

I was just finishing my Spanish homework, it was about seven o'clock, when my phone rang. Torn between answering it quickly to avoid mum hearing and being careful of who I spoke to, I checked the caller ID before picking up. Not Kin, but Ten Ten.

"Hello?"

"Oh Ino, I told him. I told him I like him."

Well this was good news! "And?"

"He... he... Ino, he was so..." Ten Ten's voice broke and I heard her trying to stifle a sob.

Not good news then.

"Ino?" crap. Mum's voice, from the other side of my bedroom door, followed by a knock. "Who are you talking to?"

I hung up, shoving the phone into my pocket with one hand and picking up a pencil with the other just as my door swung open.

"Myself," I said, trying to look as casual as possible, "just finishing my Spanish." I held it up as evidence.

"Oh. Sorry, I just thought," she shrugged, looking embarrassed.

"What?"

"That you might be on the phone."

"Oh right. Yeah, no. I wasn't."

"Okay, well I'm going upstairs. I'm knackered, so I may not come down to say goodnight."

I nodded, turning back to my desk. "That's fine, I'm pretty tired too."

She left the room and I got my phone out, typing in a text to Ten Ten.

"How are you feeling?"

And got one back less than five minutes later.

"I know it's stupid, but worse than I've ever felt in my life."

I knew what I had to do. I also knew that if I was caught doing it my grounding would never, ever be lifted. Sometimes you just need to take that chance.

"I'll meet you at the park in fifteen minutes."

I grabbed a pair of shoes, my jacket and some money, shoving my keys and mobile into my bag and slinging it over my shoulder. I was still in my school uniform but that couldn't be helped, I didn't have time to change.

It would be bad enough if she had just told a guy she liked him and been rejected, but when that guy was as... Neji-like as Neji had clearly been, well it would have made it a lot worse. And it didn't help that I'd encouraged her to tell him.

All ready. Now for the fun bit. I went to my window, opening it as wide as it would go. I grimaced as I peered out, I hadn't done this in a while. I didn't dare use the front door though, otherwise mum would hear me for sure.

I sat myself on the windowsill, putting one foot then the other through so that I was sitting outside of my room. Taking a deep breath, and resisting the urge to close my eyes, I turned myself around, sliding both legs off the window ledge so that I was holding myself up by my hands. I had to do the next part quickly, I was heavier than I used to be and after only a second or two my arms started to protest at the strain.

Ever so carefully I bent my arms, until my face was level with the ledge, then further until I was hanging by my hands. And now, the last hard part and the moment that terrified me every time I got out of the house this way. I let go.

Now might be a good time to quickly explain that isn't as dangerous as I make it sound. The window ledge for the front room windows are almost twice as wide as the ones for the upstairs bedrooms (I think it's so you can put flowers on them or something, but mum's never been into gardening). Plus, once you're hanging from the upper window ledge your feet are only a foot or so above the lower one, depending on how tall you are. That was something that helped, I was a lot taller than I had been when I first started using my window as an alternative exit, and the drop was shorter than I was used to.

From there it was an easy hop down to ground level, and I was free. All that was left to do was get to the park.

I found Ten Ten sitting on a bench, head in her hands. She looked up as I came close but soon slumped back into her previous position, shoulders shaking. I sat down next to her and put an arm around her shoulders.

"Come here. Don't worry, it'll be okay."

"I know it will," she mumbled, wiping her eyes, "I know I'm just being stupid."

"You're not being stupid, you're being human. These things hurt, if they didn't... there'd be no point."

"He was so... _cold_," the thought seemed to set her off again and fresh tears rolled down her cheeks, her breath coming in shuddering gasps.

"What did he say?"

"Well at f-first he just looked at me, then h-he narrowed his eyes and he s-said... he..." Ten Ten covered her mouth with her hand and shook her head, squeezing her eyes shut.

"I'm not normally like this," she wailed, "I'm not one of those stupid girly-girls who thinks she's in love with every cute guy she sees."

"I know. Tenny, what did he say?"

"He said that he w-wouldn't think of wasting his time on a relationship, especially not one with someone from his f-f-_father's _school, as if the school I go to could tell him what I'm _like_, and then he said that I shouldn't wa-waste my time on looking for romance when I ought to be working on studying, since 'a g-girl like you will need good grades to get ahead'."

I hugged Ten Ten as she sat there, crying, and knew that I'd need to have a good long chat with Neji, or give Hinata a message to pass on.

"Asshole," I muttered vehemently, and was relieved to see Ten Ten nod. "He's not good enough for you."

At this though, Ten Ten shook her head.

"No," she said, wiping her eyes again and calming down a little, "he's too good for me. His only problem is that he knows it."

"Don't talk rubbish. Any guy who'd pass up the chance to be with you is clearly nuts."

"Now who's talking rubbish?"

I pretended to think about it, "It's still you."

She snorted, "Sorry about this. I'm feeling better now though, thanks for coming out. Wait," she frowned, "aren't you supposed to be grounded?"

"I came out through the window."

"Ino!"

I laughed, "Some things are more important than parental rules. You being upset is one of them. Ice cream is another, want to make a detour to the 24 hour shop?"

"It's fine. You ought to get back, you don't want your mum to find out you've gone AWOL."

"Okay," I pulled Ten Ten to her feet and gave her another hug, "but seriously, I still owe you, like, two hours of friend-therapy. Whenever you want it."

"I appreciate that. And thanks again for meeting me."

I smiled, "Any time. Genuinely. To be honest, I thought I'd be here a lot longer than this."

"I'm not one for massive sob-fests."

"And never have been. Well, I guess I'll see you around. Text me?"

"Of course."

We left the park, walking together in silence until Ten Ten had to go off down her own road. I came to my house, looking up apprehensively at the window. Getting out was always considerably easier than getting back in.

I clambered onto the front room window ledge, stretching up as far as I could. On the one hand I used to have Kiba's help to get me up the last foot and a half. On the other, I was taller and should be able to reach considerably further. I was right; my fingertips were just a few inches off the mark. I looked down, shuffling my feet until I felt I was as secure as I was going to be, then jumped.

Okay, maybe next time...

Third time lucky...

_Fourth _time lucky...

Fifth? This time I almost fell off the ledge backwards when I landed, barely managing to keep my balance. I took a few deep breaths to steady myself and gave it another shot.

Yes! Finally my fingers caught the edge. I didn't waste any time, heaving myself up so that I could get an arm onto the ledge. Then my other arm, then in a supreme effort of will and strength I managed to get a knee up onto the window ledge. From there it was easy, all I had to do was shift that knee into the room and sort of roll myself in.

Well, I say easy. I managed to fall from the windowsill to the floor, landing on my back and winding myself, but as I lay there and struggled to breathe it became apparent very quickly: mum was still upstairs, oblivious.

In other words, I'd got away with it.

/\/\/\/\

I got a text from Temari on the way to school the next day.

"Is it safe to call you?"

I sent back an affirmative message and my phone rang moments later.

"Hey, how are you?"

"Look, I thought we were okay with each other."

Confused, I paused in front of the school entrance. "Yeah, me too. That's why I was a bit surprised that you didn't answer my text the other day."

"And I thought we were okay over the whole Shikamaru thing."

Oh for goodness' sake, "We are, Temari. I'm fine with it, you're fine with it."

"So why were you so off with him the other day?"

I sighed, "Because Deidara has a real problem with him."

Temari scoffed, "And why's that?"

"A combination of factors," I said wearily, "look, I'm starting to feel like you're never going to believe I don't want your boyfriend."

There was a brief silence, "I don't know if I can ever truly believe that. Once you like someone... do you ever really stop? Unless you end up hating them, that is."

"I don't hate him."

"I know."

I pinched the bridge of my nose, not sure what to say. "Maybe you should just let me know when you trust me again, okay?"

"I do trust you," Temari objected.

"What, just not with your boyfriend?" She didn't answer. "Right, well like I said. Let me know." And I hung up.

I was shedding friends like cat hairs, and at a time when I couldn't really afford to lose any more allies. Amusing as the thought was I couldn't help but be sad to lose, even if only temporarily, Temari's friendship. She was great at being optimistic and practical at the same time, and came out with some of the best advice when she was in the mood.

If nothing else, I reminded myself, at least it was Friday.

The moment I sat down next to Hinata in English she knew something was up. And she didn't need to ask for me to know that she wanted to know what it was.

"Your cousin," I said.

She looked down at the desk, "I'm very sorry."

"You don't need to apologize to me, but he definitely needs to apologize to Ten Ten."

"What did he say?"

I relayed everything Ten Ten had told me and Hinata looked embarrassed on her cousin's behalf. "That's awful."

"I know. She really doesn't go in for crying, but last night in the park..."

"I don't want to sound like I'm changing the topic, but do you actually understand the concept of being grounded?"

"Shush, you. Ten Ten needed a hug. But can you get Neji to talk to me at school? I think I need to make it clear to him how you're supposed to respond when someone makes themselves emotionally vulnerable for you."

"I can try," Hinata said doubtfully, "I don't think he'll listen to either of us. It's nothing personal, Neji is just not a very good listener."

"Perhaps not, but he's clearly a confident enough talker."

"I'm sorry."

"You haven't done anything," I sighed, "if anything, it was my fault. I encouraged her to tell him how she felt, even after your warning."

"Why was that?"

"I thought she'd be better off with a solid yes or no from him," I laughed drily, "well, she got that at least. No offense Hinata, but your cousin is kind of a massive dick."

"Yes, I know," she agreed miserably.

"Alright class!" Oh lookey, it seemed our esteemed English teacher had arrived. "Open up to chapter seven of The Handmaid's Tale, you should each have a copy on your desk, and analyze the use of language for emotive effect."

I turned to the book on my table, happy to have something to think about other than the most painful ways to make sure Neji would never father children.

The entire day felt a little surreal, from my conversation with Temari onwards. I'll say this for it though, it went quickly. It felt like barely an hour had passed before I was sweeping my pens back into my bag and leaving chemistry, my last lesson.

I said goodbye to Deidara just inside the reception area. I'd asked mum if I could stay for art club but she hadn't given her permission, saying she'd be there to pick me up at four as per usual. With a final peck on the lips from my boyfriend I left walking straight over to mum's car.

"Good day today?" She asked as I did my seat belt up.

I nodded, "You?"

"Not bad thanks."

This little conversation was becoming a bit of an afternoon ritual with us, and as always it was the only thing we said on the way home. My phone buzzed as we reached the house and I checked the new message.

"stil not talkin 2 me? wats the mater? cat got ur tung?

-Kin"

I slipped the mobile back into my bag with a smile. She was getting impatient, which meant I was getting to her, which meant I was winning. So far anyway.


	40. Chapter 40

_**Exams are over! Yaaaaay! This means that I have loads of extra free time and not a lot to do with it. In fact, nothing at all to do with it for the next couple of days, since we haven't even started the next year's courses yet. That will happen on Monday, but in the meantime I can just enjoy doing pointless things again, and reading for the sake of reading. And writing, of course! Demon lilith was the 200th reviewer, so thanks to her and also thank you to everyone who's contributed to that total by reviewing, even once. Reviewers from the last chapter who are owed specific thanks: demon lilith (obviously!), Nutella's Biggest Fan (thank you for generously helping me out with my stupid mistakes), deathrosekitty (thanks for reviewing so consistently), missmridvika (thanks for your enthusiasm! And just be patient - good things come to those who wait) and Aiko of the Akatsuki (your crazy-generous praise and generally lovely comments always make me smile, so thank you for that, as well as never ever failing to review!)**_

_**One last thing before I shut up! This chapter contains a few instances of strong language (in other words, Hidan's back) so if you're easily offended by that kind of thing... I don't know what to suggest. So I hope you're not. Now I'm done, enjoy the chapter!  
**_

_**Disclaimer:**_

_**I don't own Naruto.**_

**Study In Contrasts**_**  
**_

I was starting to get the hang of the whole being-grounded thing.

On Saturday mum went out to meet her boyfriend again (sorry, I mean, went to sort out a mess up at work – of course) when dad came round, so we went out to the park and, after a lot of nagging, I showed him where the highly exciting chase scene between me and Kin took place. I spent a surprisingly enjoyable half hour trying to show him how to get from the high path to the low one without breaking an ankle and we got back to the house long before mum did.

That evening I had a very quiet phone call with Ten Ten, reminding her how much better off she was without a moron like Neji in her life and how great a person she was and how there were plenty more assholes in the cesspit of humanity for her to discard. Oh, and a good few nice guys to be found as well. Of course.

Sunday didn't offer an opportunity to actually leave the house, but I did see Kiba. He got out of his house for the first time in a week, ignoring Hana's disapproval, and walked Akamaru past my house, stopping outside my house for a quick street-to-window chat. I didn't manage to ask him about Hinata, it wasn't exactly a great opportunity for a heart to heart, but he gave me the number of his new mobile.

And Deidara talked me to sleep every night.

Monday morning brought nasty weather. Icy rain and wind, plus dense clouds that gave everything a gloomy look. It was the first day in over a week that I'd arrived at school with less than five minutes to spare before the first bell, so I pretty much went straight to the hallway with the changing rooms to wait for sports to start.

Gai turned up, Lee trailing after him, and beamed at me.

"Ino! Are you looking forward to further practicing your martial arts?"

"Yeah, but do we have to do it outside?" I pulled at my hair by way of evidence, the bangs that normally hung loosely in front of my face were stuck to my skin and my ponytail hung in a soaking clump down my back. "It's truly gross out there."

Gai looked surprised, like he hadn't even noticed the weather. "It is? I shall go and investigate. Coming, Lee?"

"No," Lee gave Gai a thumbs up, "I will stay here and keep Ino company! It would not be gentlemanly to leave a young lady all alone."

"Excellent Lee! I can see you are already well on your way to being a fine, upstanding member of society."

"Thank you, Gai!"

"Lee!"

"Gai!"

I rolled my eyes, letting them get through their little routine before Gai pulled a final thumbs up and left. Lee sat down next to me against the wall, his mood shifting abruptly from hyperactive to solemn.

"Ten Ten didn't come to the dojo on Saturday."

"Oh yeah," I looked at Lee, "did she tell you about what happened with Neji?"

Lee frowned, "No, she hasn't contacted me in several days."

"Well," I hesitated, not sure how much to reveal, "she's kind of upset. Did you know she went to his house a couple of times last week to do some sparring?"

Lee nodded, and a flash of something like jealousy passed across his face.

I continued, "Thursday I think it was, she told him she liked him. And he was pretty unkind about it. So I think she just needed some time to herself this weekend."

"Ah. I see."

We sat in silence until other people started to show up in their friendship groups. I watched Sakura walk up on her own and lean against the wall across the corridor. Gai came back a little while later, looking put out.

"Apparently the weather is too bad for outdoor activities," he said, clearly disappointed, "so we'll be doing something slightly different."

'Something slightly different' turned out to be a massive game of dodge ball in the school hall. I wasn't sure about the whole thing. I hadn't played dodge ball since I was seven or something, and that suited me fine. Gai, however, wasn't the sort of teacher to let you sit out. He handed out fourteen balls and let the rest of us loose, free to run riot throughout the room.

Just to clarify things, I know sometimes the rules of dodge ball are that if you're hit by the ball you're out. In this game if you were hit you just had to pick up the ball and get someone else, that way we were all kept running for pretty much the whole two hours.

I've really never been into sports. Like, ever. Okay, I appreciated martial arts because it appealed to my competitive side and was great for relieving tension. This game didn't have a winner, and the balls were so soft that hitting someone wasn't in the least satisfying.

I guess you'd have to thank the bizarre magic of Konoha High and it's ability to completely change my opinions about anything and everything, but while I started the game loitering around the door and halfheartedly moving just barely out of the way of incoming attacks, within ten minutes I was getting really into it, ducking and weaving with the best of them.

Gai had encouraged us to keep a personal record of how many times we were hit and I was genuinely proud to get to the fifteen-minute mark without a single hit. I must have been getting a bit overconfident because just a few seconds after I noted that I felt a ball bounce off my leg. I turned and picked it up, searching for the person who'd thrown it.

Lee, shooting me an apologetic grin before dashing off into the crowd.

I turned around, searching for a victim... and there. I'd almost forgotten he was in our sports class, because I never actually spoke to him, but he was definitely there.

Neji better-than-you Hyuuga. I narrowed my eyes, taking aim.

"Take this," I muttered, launching the squashy red ball at full speed across the room. By some miracle of luck, I hit him square in the back of the head, unable to hold back a yell of delight. "Got him! Yes!"

I got a couple of weird looks from other people in the class, then I looked back at Neji. He was looking at me with just the slightest hint of scorn, but I was pretty sure that behind that calm and collected exterior his pride was absolutely seething. I didn't stick around to find out. If I had my way, I'd go the rest of the lesson without a hit.

Don't even bother asking me why it mattered so much, I have literally no clue.

I did in fact get hit twice more before Gai blew his whistle, once by Neji as well which really stung, but then he called out some new instructions.

"Okay everyone, for the last fifteen minutes we're introducing eliminations. As in, if you get hit: you're out! Unless you catch the ball, in which case whoever threw it is out. Oh, and just because you're holding a ball, doesn't mean you're safe from elimination if someone else throws one at you! Understood? Excellent! Get rrrready, ssssteady, GOOO!"

If I thought it was important to avoid being hit before, that was nothing to how I felt with the threat of 'elimination' hanging over me! I ran round to a corner of the room, trying to keep as many of the attackers in my sight at once. I'd like to point out now, just so you know exactly how impressive this is, that I'd been running virtually non-stop for almost two hours. Sure, Gai had allowed people to sit in the 'safe zone' for the occasional five minute breather, but it was still flipping hard work.

I dodged one ball, then caught another that was heading right for my face, putting another girl out of the game. I took two people out in quick succession, aiming at the feet rather than the upper body to avoid being caught out myself.

Someone stumbled and I caught the movement out of the corner of my eye, whirling round to take advantage of their mistake. Then I saw it was Sakura. Our eyes met and I realized that she expected me to go in for the kill, like I had last Monday with martial arts. Maybe that's why instead I just tossed the ball lightly to a vague point between her head and stomach. She caught it easily and I ran over to the safe zone (now solely for us poor eliminated folk) to watch the remainder of the game.

/\/\/\/\

After changing back into my regular uniform I went up to the common room for break and saw Lee, lurking with intent outside the door. He stopped me as I passed him, pulling me away slightly.

"Ino, may I ask you a favor?"

I shrugged, "Sure."

"Could you please give me Ten Ten's mobile number?"

I thought about it. Lee was a bit, well, weird. But on the other hand, a nice guy who was clearly worried about my friend. On balance...

"Okay. Do you have a pen? I can write it down for you."

I scribbled it down on a scrap piece of paper for him and didn't really think anything more of it, mostly because Gaara came out of the common room and did something almost unprecedented: he spoke to me.

"Temari is upset."

I was almost surprised into saying the first thing that popped into my head, _why do you care, you strange strange boy? _But I managed to bypass that and go for the next thing instead.

"Yeah? I'm sorry about that."

"It's about that boy she has been spending time with. And also about you."

"I know the history," I frowned, "look, it's all kind of complicated. She thinks I'm intending to steal Shikamaru from her, and I'm not, but she won't accept that."

"So you need to show her you can be trusted."

I spread my arms, hands palm-up, "Good idea, how do you suggest I do that?"

Gaara just looked at me like I was an idiot and walked off, and I watched him leaving for a moment, then shrugged and went into the common room. I waved a quick hello at Hinata, scanning the sofas for the Akatsuki.

I found them in the far corner, all of them sitting together for once, and went over, sitting myself precariously on the sofa arm next to Deidara. It was fairly unusual behavior for me; normally I'd wait until Deidara invited me over, especially if it was more than just him and Sasori sitting there, but I sort of felt like being brave for once.

"Hey Ino, yeah," He grinned as I sat down and I smiled back. "Good weekend?"

"Not too bad thanks. Yours?" I shifted slightly, trying to find a more comfortable position.

"Dull. I spent it at my dad's and all he wanted to do was sit around the dining table and talk about my future, hn."

"Yawn," I agreed, still fidgeting, "How about you Sasori? Get up to anything fun?"

"Not particularly, mostly studying."

"Very sensible."

"Enough is enough," Deidara said suddenly, taking hold of my waist and pulling me onto his lap, "Now can you sit still, hm? That was driving me crazy."

"Why don't you two get a room?" Hidan said from his beanbag on the floor, "None of us want to see you getting all touchy-feely."

"Don't be crude," Sasori muttered.

"Who the hell are you calling crude?"

"Drop it, idiot," Kakuzu growled.

"And you can shut up too," Hidan retorted. Despite his tone he looked like he was enjoying himself.

"Why don't all of you shut up?" Kisame suggested loudly, and then things got a little heated with all of them trying to shout over each other. Sasori sat back, clearly tuning out the chaos, and Deidara chuckled.

"I felt that," I said, leaning back against his chest.

"Oh?"

I laughed, "Say more."

"Like what? Hn. Is there anything in particular you want to hear?"

"When you talk I can feel the vibrations on my back," I explained. "It feels weird."

"Well I can feel your hair – it keeps getting in my face, yeah."

I pulled my ponytail over my shoulder. "Better?"

"Much."

Deidara touched his nose to the skin of my neck, pressing a kiss to my pulse point.

The earlier argument seemed to have calmed down, but now Hidan made a gagging noise, "Next thing you know they'll be screwing each other on the sofa-"

"What did I say about shutting up?" Kakuzu exploded.

"AND YOU FUCKWITS WILL STILL JUST TELL ME TO BE QUIET!" Hidan howled in response, and then they were off again.

I got up, pulling Deidara to his feet. "Let's walk and talk. It's way too noisy here."

We went down the main staircase, not really worrying about which direction we were going in.

"You've been spending more time than usual with your dad lately," I noted.

"It's a bit of an experiment, yeah."

"Any conclusions yet?"

He shrugged, "Not really."

"How does he feel about all your late night phone calls?"

"He doesn't mind, hn. Why d'you ask?"

"I was just thinking... it must be getting expensive. And I guess it's pretty tiring for you, and annoying having to make up a new story every night-"

"Not really," he interjected, "You fall asleep so quickly I only have to make up the beginnings, yeah."

"But it's a bit of a pain for you."

Deidara stopped, turning me gently by the arm so that I was facing him. "If you want me to stop, just say so, right? I won't be offended or anything."

"No! It's just," I looked away, "I don't just want to _take _all the time. You sit there on the other end of the phone and tell me a story every night, and it's great for me but what do you get out of it? Nothing. And that doesn't seem fair."

"That is... nonsensical," he pulled me into a hug, "but also kind of cute, hn."

"Don't patronize me," I mumbled, and he laughed.

"I like making up stories for you," he said patiently, "I like that my voice is the last thing you hear at night. And I love the fact that I'm helping you, yeah."

I stood up on tiptoes, kissing him slowly.

"I love you," I whispered as I pulled away.

"Love you too."

"Which isn't to say I won't look for something I can do for you in exchange."

Deidara smirked, "_I _can think of some possibilities, hn."

I snorted, "Don't be lewd. Save it for some time when we're not in school," I raised an eyebrow and grinned, "then maybe I'll have a think about your 'possibilities'."

He blinked, slightly taken aback, then let out a good-natured groan. "Are you torturing me on purpose, hm? Remind me how long you're grounded for?"

"At least two weeks she said, then she'd reassess the situation. That means the earliest I'll be free is this Saturday."

"I'm look forward to it already, yeah. Now come on, the bell must be about to go. I'll walk you to your next lesson."

"What a gentleman," I said, teasing, but I slipped my hand into his anyway, walking with him down to the Spanish corridor.

/\/\/\/\

I sat and glared at my mobile phone. My little chat with Gaara earlier had had quite an impact, the trouble was that I had no clue what to do about it. I felt bad that Temari was upset; I appreciated that I might have been a little harsh with her. Although it was her own damn fault for being so contrary. Honestly, if I'd been perfectly chatty with Shikamaru she'd have been calling me up to complain that I was trying to get him to like me.

And yet, and yet.

I didn't want to stop being friends any more than she apparently did. So what was I supposed to do?

_You need to show her you can be trusted._

Nice to have some really specific advice for a change. How do you show someone you're trustworthy? I thought about it but all I could come up with was how I judged whether or not I could trust someone, simply observing their behavior over a long time and building up faith in them. There was no point in trying that with Temari, we'd already been friends for years. If that wasn't enough time for her to trust me then how long would it take?

And therein lay the problem. If she didn't believe me when I said now that I wasn't after her boyfriend then she never would, I couldn't exactly make her trust me because anything I said would have little impact due to the fact that she didn't trust me.

My eyes were drawn back to my phone, still sitting innocently on the desk. I picked it up, flicking easily through the menus to reach 'compose new message'. No harm in trying something, I supposed. What was the worst that could happen? We'd already stopped talking to each other by mutual agreement.

"I know what I said the other day, but I'm sorry. I take it back. Just talk to me whenever, okay? I don't know what I can say to persuade you that I'm not interested in Shikamaru. I know you know that I'm with Deidara now, and I really like him. More than I liked Shikamaru, back when I was interested, if that helps at all. I don't care about Shikamaru in that way anymore. I haven't in ages now. Although I have to say, whatever I felt about Shikamaru, I like to think that you know me well enough to know that I would never ever try to steal my friend's guy. We've been friends a long time Temari, I'd hate for us to lose that over an issue that isn't an issue. And over a guy as well! We're better than that."

I tried not to over think it as I wrote it and I pressed send as soon as I was done. Then I regretted it instantly, wondering if instinct was really the best way to go with this. I put the phone down with a sigh.

"Ino?" Mum, outside my room. She knocked twice then pushed the door open a little, seeing me at the desk.

I swiveled the chair round to face her. "I think, technically speaking, you're supposed to wait until after I respond to open the door. Isn't that kind of the point of knocking?"

"Well, yes," I don't think she realized I was kidding. "Um, I think we have some things to talk about."

This made a welcome change. Her attitude toward me had warmed up a little, especially over the weekend, but mum still hadn't spoken to me beyond our brief conversation in the car every day and the occasional instruction.

"Okay, sure," I said easily. "You can come in and sit down or something."

She sat down on my bed, "I'd like to start by saying that I appreciate that you've been fairly good about your punishment. Let me emphasize the word 'fairly'," she straightened her back a little and I knew she was gearing up for something which I was probably not going to like. "You have to tell me whose car you were in last Friday."

"What? That is so irrelevant."

"No it isn't. I'll tell you exactly what the receptionist told me when she called that afternoon: that you'd gone up to one of the cars that had just dropped off some other students and you'd had a short conversation with the man driving and then had gone round and got into the passenger seat. So you spent that day with a man who I don't know, who I haven't even heard you mention. You came back seemingly unharmed, but how do I know whether or not anything happened?"

Oh. I could sort of see her point, it would look pretty bad. But I really didn't want to get Pein in trouble when he'd done absolutely nothing wrong. I thought very carefully about what to say next.

"Alright mum, I get where you're coming from. I'm happy to tell you who I was with, but before I do I'd like your word that you won't try to get him into trouble. I can promise you that nothing dodgy happened, I had some questions I really needed to ask him and he answered them for me. We just talked, he didn't so much as shake my hand the whole time I was with him."

Mum looked torn, "It was inappropriate for him to take a young girl anywhere with him in the car. Where did you go?"

I sighed, "I'm gonna be honest, even though it sounds bad, but we went to his house," I saw the look on her face and quickly went on, "he offered me the choice of where we went. Listen, I know you don't know him but I do. He's not a parent at the school, he's a friend of a friend."

"And," I said, suddenly remembering something, "it's not like I've never met him before. He was at my party. And he was the one who drove me to the hospital when I hit my head. There's still some blood in his car, I think it stained. It's disgusting."

I checked mum's expression and let out an internal breath of relief. I seemed to have said the right thing for once, despite the rambling, she was considerably less stressed out already.

"Are you going to give me his name then?"

"Yeah, he's called Pein. I don't know his surname. Like I said though, he's not a parent of someone at school – he's only in his twenties – so I don't think he'll be on any school records."

"That's fine. It would have been nice if you could have told me that before though. And the fact remains, even if you were sure you weren't in any danger; A, you could have been; B, you didn't tell anybody where you were going, therefore putting you at even greater risk and C, you were grounded. And you skipped almost an entire day of school."

Really wasn't liking the way this was going.

"I've thought long and hard about it and I think it's best if your grounding continues for another week," I was all ready to object to that but she marched right on, "I also have a few new rules to lay down. You're not to go out with friends I haven't met. You now have a curfew of ten o'clock on a school night, eleven on a weekend. You'll come straight home after school before going anywhere else, you-"

"What are you trying to do to me?"

"I'm trying to create boundaries which will keep you safe."

"No you're _not_," I gasped, standing up, "what you're trying to do is tie me to you. So that I can never wander off past where you're comfortable."

"I just want to look after you! You're my daughter!"

"How am I supposed to learn anything about what's out there if I don't go and experience some of it? How am I supposed to learn how to keep myself safe if you try and do it for me all the time?"

"These rules are non-negotiable," mum said firmly, "you frightened me half to death the other day."

"I'm not standing for this," I promised fiercely.

"You don't have a choice in the matter. I'm also forbidding you to see Deidara again. I know he wasn't with you in the forest but the fact remains: we were getting along much better, then you started going out with him and all of a sudden started slipping back into your old habits," She stood up, facing me head on. She still had an inch or so on me in terms of height. "I will not watch you destroy your life. While you're under my roof you're under my protection and you will follow my rules."

"I'd rather leave."

"Don't be melodramatic. Where would you go?"

"I'd figure something out."

Mum just laughed a little unpleasantly, "Whatever you say Ino. But until you go out and get your independence you'll do as I tell you."

She left the room, not looking back as she let the door close behind her. I stood shaking for a moment then, hardly thinking about what I was doing, got an old backpack out of my wardrobe, shoving some clothes into it. A vague plan was forming in the back of my mind. I texted Deidara, "Where are you staying tonight?" then went into the bathroom, picking up my toothbrush. I went back to my room. What else would I need? Hairbrush, hair ties, deodorant.

My mobile buzzed and I opened the new message, "Pein's. Sorry, I couldn't take another minute of my dad. It's going to be a long, slow process."

Reply. "Do you think he'd let me stay too?"

I wasn't running away from home, much as it may have looked like it. I was just taking a break. If Pein wouldn't take me in for a couple of days I'd have to see if one of my other friends had any ideas. Or maybe Deidara would let me stay in his studio? I needed to get out of there though, that was for sure.

I got a message back from Deidara, "He says he'll pick you up from the end of your road that's nearest the bus stop, just give him twenty minutes or so. Is everything okay? Did you get kicked out?"

"Not exactly. She invited me to leave if I wanted to but she thought I was just saying it in the heat of the moment."

I got out a pen and tore a page out of my notebook. If I was going to do this I had to let mum know that I wasn't just sleeping in a doorway somewhere, otherwise she'd go ballistic.

"Mum," I wrote. "I'm going to stay with a friend for a couple of days. I know it's probably not the most mature way to deal with the situation, but you're right. If I'm under your roof I have to live by your rules, it's only fair. And I'm not happy to do that. Neither of us are in the mood for negotiation, so I'm just going to get some space. I promise I'm not running away forever, and I'll be happy to talk to you on the phone if you need reassuring that I'm safe. I love you, and I'm sorry that this is going to worry you, but I know I can look after myself."

I left the note open on my desk and just over fifteen minutes later I opened my window, climbing out and heading off down the road with my school bag in one hand and my bag of clothes in the other. I had to wait on the corner for a couple of minutes, then Pein's car pulled up next to me.


	41. Chapter 41

**_I'm really sorry about the wait. This chapter was a tough one to write, but I should have the next one up soon. I had a bit of a block, and every time I wrote something I thought it looked like crap two minutes later. It's done now though! Thanks to: Aiko of the Akatsuki, demon lilith, deathrosekitty and missmridvika. I really hope you guys enjoy this one!_**

**_Disclaimer:_**

**_DON'T OWN._**

**Study In Contrasts_  
_**

Pein took my bags as I got into the car, putting them on the backseat for me. I mumbled a thank you and watched the streetlights flicker by as we drove away from my house. In the shifting shadows Pein's face looked even more serious than usual, and he didn't even look at me for about five minutes.

"How are you feeling?" He asked eventually, breaking the silence.

"Not too bad,"I replied, "kind of buzzed actually."

"That will be the adrenaline. Does your mother know where you're going?"

"No. I left her a note saying I was going to stay with a friend but I didn't give her a name. And I told her she could call me."

Pein nodded, but it was hard to tell whether he approved or not. The car stopped at a traffic light and he glanced over. "I won't ask you any questions about your reasons, but you ought to think very carefully about whether this is the right thing to do."

"It's not permanent."

"What you mean is that you're not leaving forever, but that doesn't mean the effects will be any less long lasting. Of course, that may be what you want to achieve. I'm just suggesting that you consider it."

I nodded, trying to squash the defensive feeling I was getting. I had to remind myself that he was just helping me make sure I didn't do something I would regret later. Gazing out the window I tried to analyze my motivations a little. It was hard though, all the feelings were still raw and all tangled up together.

"I think... I might partly be doing it to prove that I don't need her," I said quietly. Pein just nodded once. "And also to get some freedom. And maybe, slightly, as a kind of revenge thing. Does that make me really awful?"

"No it doesn't, but it's not a good reason to do anything. The other two, they're better." But not great, was the implication. We passed the rest of the journey in silence.

When we eventually arrived back at Pein's house I grabbed my bags off the back seat and closed the car door myself, following him to the front door. I cleared my throat self-consciously as he got the key out of his pocket.

"Thank you for letting me stay," I said quickly.

"It's nothing," he replied, expression neutral. "You're welcome here."

He opened the door and indicated for me to go in first. I clasped my bags a little more tightly and walked in.

Deidara came bounding out of the living room, looking delighted.

"This is so cool, hn!" He grinned at me and Pein in turn. "Which room's she staying in?"

"I'll leave you to decide that with Konan."

"Come on Ino, I'll show you round, yeah."

Deidara took me by the hand and led me round, pointing out the living room, kitchen, bathroom and office on the ground floor then dragging me upstairs to see the three bedrooms and second bathroom. The house was kind of bigger than it looked on the outside – it was a little narrow but quite long, which you couldn't tell from the street.

I made all these observations distantly at the time, noting them in my head as if I was reading about this house rather than actually experiencing it. The whole situation was feeling kind of surreal, I half wondered if I'd just fallen asleep after my argument with mum.

"So, who's sleeping where?" I asked as we sat down on the sofa in the living room, trying to bring myself back to the moment.

"Konan and Pein have the biggest room, hn, I usually stay in the green room when I'm here and when Sasori stays he takes the red room."

"Is Sasori staying tonight?"

"Yeah, he'll probably be out for a while yet though."

Konan came in and sat down on the other chair. "So," she said, "I was thinking... Ino in the green room, Deidara and Sasori in the red room."

"That's no fun, yeah," Deidara joked, slipping an arm round my shoulders.

"You can do what you like," Konan said with a shrug, and Deidara shook his head.

"I wasn't serious. That's fine by me. Ino, okay with you, hm?"

"Yep, that's fine. I don't really mind where I sleep."

"Alright then," Konan stood up again, "I'll go and make up the beds."

My phone rang as she left the room. I stood up mechanically and went over to where I'd left my bag, taking the mobile out and answering the call.

"Hey."

"Ino? Ino, where are you?" Mum's voice was frantic.

"I'm fine. I'm perfectly safe."

"Tell me where you are and I'll come and get you," as soon as she knew I was alive her tone became far more angry than worried. That was a relief in a way; it was easier to be defiant when she was pissed off.

"No."

"You can't just run off like this! Don't be ridiculous! I'll bring you home and we can talk-"

"There's no point in us trying to talk when we're both so upset," I said as reasonably as I could, "I'm at my friend's house, we've just sorted out where I'm sleeping, I'll stay here tonight and maybe talk to you tomorrow when you've calmed down."

"I wouldn't need to calm down if you hadn't gone off in the middle of the night you stupid child!" She shouted. I held the phone gingerly away from my ear.

"Mum, chill, it's only eight o'clock or something."

"Don't be cheeky!"

"Seriously. Relax."

"And don't tell me to relax! Tell me where you are right now."

"I won't. You'll just come and make a scene."

"I'm warning you Ino, I am at the very end of my patience. Any more of this and," she cut herself off.

"And what?" I asked, part mocking, part genuinely curious.

"And you won't be welcome back here any more."

I let out a hesitant laugh, "Be serious."

"You think I'm joking?" I flinched at the unexpected harshness in her voice. "Come back now or stay away for good."

There was a pause, her words left hanging in the silence, before I responded, "Are you... kicking me out?"

Deidara looked up at that, worried.

"If you don't head home right this instant."

"Well _that's _not going to happen," I replied, voice shaking a little.

"In that case, don't bother coming home at all."

The phone went dead.

One hand came up involuntarily to cover my mouth and I felt a shocked tear run down my face. Deidara stood up and rushed over.

"What just happened? Hn."

I just shook my head, choking out a sob. Deidara put his arms around me, "It'll be okay," he said softly, "she'll come round, yeah. She won't stay mad for long."

He gently removed the phone from my hand. I hadn't even noticed that it had still been pressed to my ear. I cried freely into his shirt, suddenly wishing I could go back in time and have the conversation differently. Even at the time a part of me knew that the reaction was as much due to tension and tiredness as anything else, but it didn't help me stop crying. Deidara just stroked my hair with one hand, holding me tightly to him with the other arm. "I promise it'll be okay."

I heard the front door open but with my back to the door I couldn't see who it was.

"Hey Sasori, hn."

Oh yes, he was staying too. I pushed Deidara away slightly and he let go reluctantly. Sasori came in and took note of both of us. The front of Deidara's shirt was completely soaked and I can only imagine how horrific I looked.

"What happened?" Sasori asked.

I responded, wiping at my eyes with the back of my hand, "I think I just got kicked out of my house."

"Ah."

"Once your mum calms down she'll take it back in a heartbeat, yeah." Deidara told me confidently.

I wasn't so sure about that. "She kicked dad out."

"That's different," Sasori said.

"Completely," Deidara agreed, "you're her daughter. Totally different relationship, hn."

I sniffled slightly, trying not to start crying again. It was hard though, it's always harder when people are nice. Even Sasori, who didn't usually have much to say to anyone.

Konan came back in at that point to let us know that the rooms were all ready and while she filled Sasori in on the sleeping arrangements Deidara took my hand.

"I'm sorry."

I looked up at him. "What for? This was my idea."

"I feel like I should have tried to get you to think about it first. I was selfish, I just wanted you to come here, yeah."

"Don't worry about it," I smiled tiredly, "once I'd decided I was going to do it you couldn't have changed my mind. Do you think I should call her back tonight or leave it?"

"I'd suggest leaving it for the night," Konan suggested, Sasori having explained what he knew of the situation. "tomorrow she'll regret saying it and that will be when she's most receptive to an apology."

"Okay then," I sighed, sitting down on the sofa. Deidara sat down next to me, still holding my hand. Conversation moved on to other topics but I wasn't really focused. I couldn't stop myself from replaying my conversation with mum.

_Don't be ridiculous! I'll bring you home and we can talk-_

_You stupid child!_

_Don't bother coming home._

At half past ten Pein said we ought to get some sleep, so I picked up my bag and went upstairs. The green room was a medium sized bedroom, a little smaller than my one at home, with a pale cream carpet and mint green walls. There was a single bed under the window, a chair in one corner and a bin by the door. I put my bag on the chair, taking out my pajamas and getting ready for bed.

_Don't be ridiculous! I'll bring you home and we can talk-_

I brushed my teeth in the upstairs bathroom. Everything was different, from the size and shape of the sink to the brand of toothpaste. It tasted funny in my mouth. I saw myself in the mirror on the door of the medicine cabinet, I had been right when I thought I looked awful. My hair was a mess, my eyes were red and swollen and my mascara (supposedly waterproof, maybe I could sue?) had run, leaving dirty tracks down my cheeks. I scrubbed my face with the unfamiliar soap before going back to my room.

_You stupid child!_

I brushed my hair thoroughly before pulling it back into a ponytail, then sat and looked out of the window for a while. I felt strangely numb, noticing random little details about the smudges on the window and the dust on the shutters rather than actively thinking about the fact that I was technically homeless.

_Don't bother coming home._

The room was quite nice, in a bare sort of way. Like a blank canvas. I got under the duvet, enjoying the smell of the clean sheets. Nothing like the smell of my sheets at home, which mum cleaned with some lavender-scented stuff. These smelled kind of like pine, it was a clear, fresh smell that helped clear my foggy head. There was a knock at the door and I sat up a little.

"Come in."

Deidara poked his head round. He was in tracksuit bottoms and a baggy black t-shirt, his hair loose down his back. I was suddenly super-conscious of my baby blue pajamas, a camisole top and long trousers, both with white lacy edging.

"How are you, hm?"

I shrugged, "Tired. And kind of sad. But I like it here. It feels safe."

"I know, yeah. Mind if I sit?"

"No, go ahead," I sat up fully to make room for him and he sat down on the bed with me.

"I think it's something to do with the fact that Pein and Konan are so neutral," he said, "it's like nothing you do or say can have the slightest effect on them, hn. It means that you can be sad or angry without worrying you'll drag them down, and they never act like it's a hassle to have us kids around. It also means they don't seem upset or hurt when you decide you're ready to leave for a while. It's like," he looked up, trying to find the word.

"A sanctuary? Kind of?"

"Yeah."

Another knock at the door. "Yes?"

Pein opened it enough to see us both. "I was just checking you're okay up here."

"I'm alright," I smiled.

"Konan told me about your phone call with your mother," he paused, and I got the feeling that the next part was something he'd been instructed to say. "Feel free to stay as long as you need to."

I smiled, grateful anyway. "Thank you."

"Don't worry about it. Goodnight, both of you," he left, closing the door behind him.

I stretched, "I'd better set an alarm on my phone."

"I'll wake you up if you like, yeah."

"No thanks," I grimaced, "I don't want you to see me first thing in the morning."

Deidara laughed, "Why not, hm?"

"Because I'll be gross. It was bad enough that I cried all over you and ended up looking like some kind of monst-" I had to stop, interrupted by my own yawn.

"Time to sleep I think, hn. How do you feel about a story tonight?"

I looked hopefully at him, "Would you mind?"

"Not even a tiny bit. Here, lie down, yeah."

Deidara moved to the edge of the bed so that I could lie down properly, and then he began.

"Okay, once upon a time there was a volcano. And in this volcano was a secret village, full of tiny little creatures that lived off the volcanic ash that coated the walls..."

/\/\/\/\

I was disorientated when I woke up the next morning, almost whacking my head on the bottom of the blinds when I sat up. It only took a moment to remember where I was, but when I did I scrabbled for my phone. What was the time?

I heard someone knocking on the door and dimly realized that that was what had woken me up. Then there was a low chuckle from the other side of it.

"Are you awake in there, yeah?"

I grabbed instinctively for the duvet, pulling it up to my chin. "Yes, I am, but don't come in!"

"I'm not going to, don't worry. I just remembered you didn't end up setting your phone alarm, hn. Don't worry, it's only ten to seven. Come downstairs for breakfast when you're ready," Deidara walked off, still laughing to himself, and I couldn't help a small smile.

I passed Konan in the hallway and exchanged good mornings.

"What time will we have to leave?" I asked, wondering whether I had time to wash my hair.

"Not until half past eight at the earliest."

Cool, I had loads of time. "Would it be okay if I used the shower?"

"Of course. Any of the towels are fine, and you can use any of the shampoo and things in there."

I smiled, "Thanks."

"It's no problem," Konan tilted her head to one side, "try not to worry too much about the situation with your mum. These things have a way of working out for the best."

I thanked her again, slightly disregarding her last statement, and went into the bathroom. I don't know if you've ever had a bath or shower in the house of somebody you don't know very well. It's a truly bizarre sensation. I kept worrying that someone was going to walk in while I was washing my hair or something, just because it wasn't my house. I finished up as quickly as I could, wrapped myself up in a towel and practically sprinted back to my room.

Without a hairdryer I knew my hair would dry wavy rather than straight, but there wasn't much I could do about that. I wasn't about to go down and see if Konan would lend me one, I felt like I'd already asked enough. I brushed it a few times and then got into my uniform, glad I'd grabbed a couple of extra shirts. Once I was all dressed and my hair only slightly damp I went downstairs, following faint sounds of conversation into the kitchen.

Deidara and Sasori were sat at the table eating cereal while Konan stood by the toaster and Pein poured glasses of orange juice.

"Morning, Ino," Sasori said pleasantly, Pein following suit.

"Sleep well?" Deidara checked.

"Like a log," I replied, "what cereal is there?"

"Cornflakes, Honey Loops and Weetabix," Konan supplied.

"No more Weetabix, hn," Deidara put in, "I had the last two."

"Well then," I sighed with exaggerated sorrow, "I can't eat anything. All I wanted was Weetabix."

"Maybe the person who finished them should run down to the shop and get some more?" Konan suggested, piling toast slices onto a plate and bringing them over to the table.

Deidara scoffed at that and shoved a chair towards me with his foot, "Come on, sit down, yeah."

I poured myself some cornflakes and accepted a glass of orange juice from Pein, feeling a tentative sense of belonging. It was all very peaceful, very little conversation, but the fact that there were five of us round the table made it feel vastly different to my average breakfast at home. When we were finished Deidara and Sasori exchanged glances.

"I'm clearing," Sasori said tonelessly.

"You cleared last time you were here, yeah," Deidara said, narrowing his eyes, "this time you wash."

"I'll clear... and dry," was the return offer, delivered with convincing finality. Deidara, however, was undeterred.

"No. You'll wash. And put away, hn."

Pein and Konan got up and left them to it, whereas I watched as the debate became more involved.

"If I wash and put away," Sasori was saying, "I have to wait for you to dry everything. If I clear, you can wash the things as I bring them and then when I'm done clearing I can dry the things as you're washing."

"I know you hate waiting around, yeah, but surely if you wash and put away you can do the same sort of thing?"

"No, because you take so long to dry."

"I have an idea," I said, both of them turning to look at me, "assuming I'm right and we're talking about the breakfast stuff, how about you clear, Deidara, I wash and Sasori, you dry?"

"What about putting away?" Deidara asked.

"Well I can't do that because I don't have a clue where anything goes, but you can share the job if it makes you feel better."

"That works for me," Sasori said, "if you two get started quickly."

"Sorted!" I said, standing up and moving towards the sink.

/\/\/\/\

English was my last lesson that day, and it was the first time I'd really had a chance to talk to Hinata.

"Hey," I said as I sat down, "what's new?"

"Oh... nothing really. How are you?"

I smiled wryly, "It's quite a story."

"Why?"

"My mum may have kicked me out."

I did get a kick out of shocking that poor girl.

"W-why?"

I told her all the details, from our initial argument to my escape and subsequent eviction. Hinata looked concerned, "Are you okay?"

"Well I'm going to see her after school today and I'm hoping that when I talk to her she'll take it back. I'm going to have to apologize for running off."

"On the tiny, virtually non-existent chance she doesn't take it back," Hinata said anxiously, "what will you do?"

"I don't think that will be a problem. I mean, she may be incredibly pissed off but she won't stop me from living with her. If she _did_... I guess I'd just keep living with Pein?"

"Isn't that..."

"What?"

"Weird for you?"

"How so?"

"Living with someone you don't know. And didn't you say Deidara lives there too?"

I shrugged nonchalantly, "Yeah, I guess it's a little weird. It feels fine though. And Deidara doesn't live there, he just stays there sometimes."

"At the moment?"

"Uh, yes. He woke me up this morning actually."

Hinata looked vaguely scandalized and I barely managed to hold back a laugh.

"It's fine Hina. There's nothing inappropriate going on. Anyway, I probably won't be staying there again so it's not a problem."

I thought of my bag of clothes, left in reception for safekeeping during the day. I hadn't wanted to leave them at Pein's because I knew it would be annoying to have to get a lift there to pick them up.

As the bell rang for the end of the day I stood up, nerves beginning to kick in. I walked towards the exit, trying to figure out what I was going to say to mum. Just picturing the conversation left me feeling kind of nauseous, and every time I attempted to come up with a way of starting my apology the same four words ran through my head.

_Don't bother coming home._


	42. Chapter 42

**_OMG CHAPTER UPDATE! A little early, because the writing came quite easily and I wanted to apologize for being such an erratic updater. (So I make up for it by further unscheduled updating... but hey, at least it's early rather than late, right?) Anyways, more heartfelt thank-you's due to Aiko of the Akatsuki, demon lilith, deathrosekitty and missmridvika. I'm so unbelievably happy that you guys like this story enough to carry on reading, and every review I get makes me grin like an idiot. Also, I love the fact that you guys say more in a review than "I like it lol", I really appreciate that you take the time to say what you liked especially or identified with. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside :P_**

**_WARNING: Further instances of Hidan and his uncontrollable swearing towards the end of this chapter. I hope it doesn't upset anyone, he doesn't mean to hurt anyone's feelings. Okay, that's a lie, but he doesn't mean to hurt your feelings!_**

**_Disclaimer:_**

**_I don't own a thing!_**

**Study In Contrasts_  
_**

I stood outside my house, trying to force my mind to stop running through all the worst case scenarios. Mum's car was there outside the house. She was definitely home. I'm not sure how long it took for me to gather up the courage to go to the front door. I had my keys but somehow it felt fundamentally wrong to use them.

Frowning, I considered the door. Then knocked.

Mum came to the door, looking surprised to see me.

Then she opened her arms and gathered me into a hug, letting out a gasp of relief. "I've been so worried," she said, "I can't believe you just ran away like that. What were you thinking?"

She moved away from the doorway, letting me in, and we went through to the kitchen to talk...

Okay, that didn't happen. I just really wish it had. Here's how it really went.

Mum came to the door, looking surprised to see me.

Then she folded her arms across her chest, her expression closing off. And behind her in the hallway, my worst nightmare. Two boxes and a bag.

"Here to pick up your things? I know you probably don't have anywhere to keep stuff so I've just packed up what you're most likely to need. If anything's missing you can let me know and I'll have a look for it."

I knew it. If she could chuck out the father of her daughter, what was to stop her doing exactly the same to the daughter herself? Mum would love unconditionally, yes – up to a point. It seemed I'd reached that point.

"Mum?" I said weakly. She didn't so much as twitch.

"Have you got anyone here to help you carry things?"

She was deadly serious about this. I was reminded somehow of how things had been before I moved to Konoha High, how every time I felt like opening up to her I'd put up another wall to protect myself. Now I knew that if I wanted my mum back I'd have to make myself vulnerable. I took a breath in and told her the truth, "I don't want to go."

She raised an eyebrow and I closed my eyes, beginning to cry.

"Please don't do this, I'm sorry," my voice cracked a little on the last word, "I love you. I'll be better, I promise, just please don't make me leave."

Mum didn't say anything for a moment and I looked up, meeting her eyes.

She looked bored.

"I'll leave the door open. Take your things and make sure you close it on your way out."

"Mama..."

"You made your choice," she said matter-of-factly, "you want to take care of yourself? Fine. You're no longer my responsibility. Enjoy your freedom."

And she walked away, upstairs to her room. I watched her go, speechless. After a moment of wondering if she'd come back down (apparently not) I went into the hallway, picking up the first box to test its weight. It was heavy, not unmanageable though. I stacked it on top of the other box and hefted them up together. They were both rectangular, thirty centimeters or so tall and wide, closer to half a meter lengthways with holes cut into each end to serve as handles. I put them both down again.

Could this really be happening? I squeezed my eyes shut, wiping away the tears that had already slipped out. The answer was a resounding yes. I'd seen it happen before after all. I knelt on the floor next to the boxes and took deep breaths to calm myself down. Then I took off the backpack I'd left with the night before. I looked in the bag mum had left; there was a lot of makeup, the books that had been on my desk, my painting stuff and my CDs. I split all that between my schoolbag and backpack, slinging the former over my shoulder and hanging the latter off my right arm. Then I put my hands through the holes on the lower box and lifted them both.

Moving slowly to avoid dropping anything I backed out of the front door, pausing to put the boxes down and close the door. Then, after a little thought, I took my house keys and posted them through the letterbox. I wasn't going to hang on to something that was clearly over. Guess who I learned that lesson from?

I made my way to the park, wanting a little while to compose myself before I saw anyone. I didn't want to have another embarrassing crying episode, _so_ not attractive. I also had to think about what I was going to do with my boxes, it was time to start being practical. I wasn't sure what was in them, but I didn't want to show up at Pein's lugging what looked like the entire non-furniture contents of my room. Even he might balk at that.

The sound of barking reached my ears and I glanced down, bewildered to find Akamaru jumping excitably at me. I was sitting on the swing set, my boxes and bags by my feet. Kiba followed shortly after his dog.

"Ino!" He ran up, "What are you doing out and about?"

I could taste the bitterness in my voice when I spoke, "Yeah. I'm not grounded anymore."

Kiba frowned, "What's up?" then he noticed the boxes, "and what's in those?"

"I'm not exactly sure. But it's stuff from my room."

"Alright, and what's it doing in boxes, here, with you? Are you taking it to the charity shop or something?"

"Nope."

"Well what then?"

"I don't live with my mum anymore."

"What?" Kiba looked thrown, "Are you joking?"

"If only."

He looked at the boxes, suddenly seeing them in a whole new light, "Tell me what happened."

I leaned my head against the chain of the swing, "She came into my room and we had a chat about why I'd been grounded in the first place, then she told me that my grounding was going to be extended into three weeks Then she started laying down the law, creating this new set of rules to be obeyed. Stuff like me not being allowed to see friends she hadn't met, and saying that I had to stop seeing Deidara, so I said I'd rather just leave and she said that was fine by her. She didn't expect me to actually do it though. I needed to get some thinking space, so I texted Deidara and asked if Pein would mind me staying at his place-"

"Whoa whoa whoa, back up a bit," Kiba sat down on the grass in front of me, "staying at whose place?"

"You remember the guy who drove me to the hospital? Deidara stays at his house sometimes. Quite a lot actually, since he doesn't really get on with his dad. So Deidara texted me back and said that was fine, Pein would pick me up from near my house. So I went there and we sorted out who was sleeping where, then mum called me,"

I paused, trying to shake off the memory.

_Don't bother coming home._

"... Ino?"

"Sorry. Um, yes, she said that if I didn't go home there and then she didn't want me back at all. And I... I don't know if I was calling her bluff or just genuinely didn't want to go back there, it's all confused now, but I said that I wouldn't and then she said..."

_Don't bother coming home._

I gave myself an internal shake. I had to pull myself together – if nothing else, to prove to mum that I wasn't going to just fall apart the moment I was on my own. Despite my determination, my voice trembled a little when I continued.

"She said that I shouldn't go home. But I did, today, because I wanted to apologize and go back, but," I indicated the boxes with a sweep of my hand, "she'd done this. Packed up my stuff. I stood there and cried in front of her and she didn't even care. She just looked like she found the whole thing kind of tedious."

Kiba looked at me, aghast. "That is... what're you gonna do?"

"As soon as I've figured out what to do with these," I kicked the boxes lightly, "I'll text Deidara and get him to send Pein over. He already said I could stay as long as I needed."

"Well how long are you gonna need? If you don't have anywhere else to go you'll have to stay with him till you move out to university or whatever. And what are you gonna do about the fees for your school? And is this Pein guy just gonna take care of all your expenses-"

"Kiba, please," I shut my eyes against the major headache I could feel coming on, "I can't deal with any of that right now. I need to sort out the boxes and I need to take some painkillers. Those are my priorities."

"That's fair," he stood up, "take it a moment at a time for now. You'll be fine."

I looked up doubtfully and he grinned, "Seriously, you will be fine. Here," he grabbed the boxes, "let me get these."

"Thanks. Where are we taking them?"

"My place. We'll get them into my room, you can have a look through and see what you do and don't need on an immediate basis, the rest you can just store under my bed for the time being."

I picked up my bags, following Kiba gratefully, "You're far, far too good to me."

"You're my best friend, you're like family to me. I care about you as much as, and sometimes a little more than, my actual sister. So, basically, you can count on me."

What could I say to that? "Thank you."

I held the boxes while Kiba opened his front door, then he took them off me to get upstairs. Hana glared daggers at us from the living room doorway.

"What's all that?"

"All the stuff I've left at Ino's over the years," Kiba lied easily.

"I'm doing a clear-out," I backed up, and she nodded stiffly. On a whim I turned and gave her a genuine smile before going upstairs. She looked like she didn't really know what to do with it.

When we got up to Kiba's room I gazed around, shocked. "Kiba... you can see your floor!"

"Yeah," he laughed, "Hinata helped me tidy up yesterday. I'm trying to keep it like this."

He put the boxes down in the middle of the room and took a pair of scissors to the parcel tape along the tops. They were both mostly clothes, with some photos and things off my desk, my alarm clock and my lamp. I bit my lip, not sure what I wanted to take with me.

"I guess you need to pick out some clothes?"

I nodded slowly, "Underwear, obviously. My coat. And a couple of things for the weekend. I have uniform stuff with me in this," I patted my trusty backpack and starting packing it even more full.

I felt my phone vibrate through my bag and took it out.

"How did it go? All sorted?

-Deidara"

Ha.

"Not exactly. Can you let Pein know that I'm going to need a lift in about an hour, if that's okay with him. I'm at Kiba's."

Kiba watched me text. "Who was that?"

"Deidara," I answered, slipping the phone back into my bag, "asking how things went."

He nodded, turning back to the boxes. "Anything else you need or want from in these?"

"I don't think so. Wait," I grabbed my alarm clock, "okay, now I'm done."

"Okay then," he folded the flaps back down and shoved the boxes under his bed, one by one. "Listen, if things don't work out at Pein's place you can come here."

"Your parents would so not be cool with that," I pointed out, "that's why I didn't come to you straight away."

"Really?" Kiba sat down on his bed and looked evenly at me, "You mean you wouldn't have still gone to Deidara first?"

I frowned and Kiba held up a hand in a placating gesture, "I'm not complaining. Just curious. I mean, you didn't let me know any of that was going on. Pre-Deidara you would have been on the phone to me immediately."

"I don't know," I said honestly. "But you're still my best friend. If I don't bug you it's because I figure I've already done more than my fair share of bugging you over the years. Now I have a boyfriend I can split the bugging more evenly between the two of you."

Kiba laughed, "Okay. But can you remember something?"

"Go ahead."

"I'd always rather be bugged by you than not know when something's happening."

I nodded, blinking back tears again. "Okay."

He came over and crouched down next to me. "You can cry you know. You've had a hell of a day."

So I did. Curling up into a ball on Kiba's floor I cried until I was all cried out. Kiba just sat there with me, watching over me and occasionally stroking my hair. Once I had made myself feel well and truly sick with it I sat up again, wiping my eyes.

"Here," Kiba provided a crumpled tissue and I used that to scrub gingerly at the tear tracks. "I'll go get you some painkillers. You're gonna have a killer headache after all that. Be right back."

While he was gone I made up my mind: I wouldn't cry over this situation any more. I'd done more than enough of that and it wasn't going to get me anywhere. I had told mum I could look after myself, it was about time I proved it. My mobile buzzed again and I had a look at it.

"As requested, a lift will be arriving at Kiba's house in twenty minutes. That is, if you can provide an address.

-Deidara"

I replied with the house number, street name and post code. Then Kiba came in, carrying two tablets in one hand and a glass of orange juice in the other. "Soul juice," he said, handing it to me.

After taking the tablets I sipped the orange juice, looking around Kiba's room. I hadn't seen it this neat in years. Hinata was a minor miracle worker. Which reminded me... I turned to Kiba.

"Kiba, can you keep a secret?"

"You know I can."

I smiled, "Well it's not my secret, so I have to check."

He rolled his eyes but held up a hand in a pretend vow, speaking solemnly. "Yes I can keep a secret."

"Right. Hinata likes you."

He looked incredulously at me, "Really?"

"Truly. You couldn't tell?"

"I wasn't sure. Sometimes she seemed like she might, but then she'd go all mousy and I wondered if it was just shyness."

"That's what she's like when she has a crush on someone. Chronically shy. Are you interested?" Kiba looked thoughtful. "Only, if you're not, don't tell her I said anything."

"I wouldn't. I hadn't really looked at her that way to be honest. I like her though, she's sweet. And so innocent, she looks like she'd need someone to look after her."

Exactly. And Kiba would be perfect for the job. He'd taken care of me for long enough, nobody could doubt his experience.

Fifteen minutes or so later I heard a car pull up outside and stood up, picking up my bag.

"Is that your ride?" Kiba asked, standing up with me.

"I think so."

"Alright. Good luck. And Ino," he grinned, "don't be a stranger. Feel free to bug me whenever."

"Will do," I hugged Kiba goodbye and hopped down the stairs two at a time, opening the front door and glancing out. Yep, there was Pein's car, except Deidara was driving! I ran up and got into the car, chucking my bags onto the back seat.

"Hey," he leaned over to kiss me, "what happened, hm?"

I sighed, "It was unpleasant," Deidara started the engine again, driving in the direction of school. "She'd packed up my room and left a couple of boxes in the hallway for me to collect."

He looked disapproving. "That seems a little extreme, yeah."

"Tell me about it. I tried to say sorry and ask if I could stay but she didn't budge. Didn't even really listen," I looked intently at the dashboard, tracing the edges with my eyes, "I don't know what I'm going to do about a lot of stuff. Kiba pointed it out to me, who's going to pay for my school fees if mum doesn't? And assuming I can't go back there, what, I'm going to live with Pein for a year and a half? It's just... impossible."

"Try not to worry too much," Deidara said, "I know it's hard, but we'll have a chat with Pein tonight and see what he says, hn. You're not going to end up on the streets or anything, we'll make sure you're okay whatever happens."

"I just can't believe the way she looked at me," I said quietly, "like she didn't even know me."

Deidara's hands gripped the steering wheel a little more tightly and I glanced up. His eyes were set on the road but when he noticed me looking he relaxed.

"Sorry, I just really don't like the idea of someone hurting you like that, yeah."

"It's fine," I looked back out of the window, smiling. "It's nice to have someone worry about me. Just try not to break something."

When we got back to Pein's Deidara picked up my bags for me and I closed the car door, looking up at the house for a moment before going up to the front door. Already it was starting to feel more familiar to me, and I wondered how long I'd end up living there for.

Deidara was struggling to get his key out of his pocket while holding my bags so I gave him a hand, holding the bags while he opened the door.

"We're back," he called out.

"Halle-fucking-lujah!" Came a voice from upstairs.

I snorted with laughter while Deidara clenched his fists and glared upwards. "Does Hidan sometimes stay here too?"

Deidara looked at me and grimaced, "How did you guess? He's the only other one that ever needs a home away from home, hn."

Hidan appeared at the top of the stairs, looking distinctly unimpressed.

"I don't suppose either of you thought to get food? I'm starved. When's the big guy getting back?"

"Pein?" Deidara shrugged, "He just told me he'd be a while."

"Well I'm bored. Hasn't he even heard of TV? This place is shit, I don't know why I even come here."

"Because your house can be marginally more shit?" I suggested.

Hidan appeared to consider it. "Yeah, maybe. Anyway, I'm going for food. Coming, morons?"

"Much as I love being around you, no thanks, hn," Deidara went through to the living room.

"Actually," I turned to Deidara, "would you mind if I went?"

Hidan halted on his way to the door and raised his eyebrows, surprised.

"You want to spend _more _time with Hidan? Are you out of your mind? Hn," Deidara looked stunned.

"Not as such, I just want to know where the shops are. It could come in handy."

"Fair enough, yeah. Here," Deidara got the house key back out of his pocket and tossed it to me, but Hidan snatched it out of the air.

"Why the hell don't I get one of these?" He complained.

"Because you'd just lose it," Deidara snapped, "give it back to Ino, hn."

"Fine," Hidan dropped it into my hand and went to the door. "Keep the fuck up or I'll leave you behind," he said over his shoulder, heading out.

I flashed a brief grin at Deidara, then followed.

We turned left and walked down the road, Hidan muttering about something inaudible.

"How far is it?" I asked.

"Too fucking far for stupid questions," he replied quickly.

I frowned, "I'm not sure that made sense."

He glared at me, then sighed loudly, "It's just a five minute walk."

"Thank you Hidan," I replied sweetly, "I appreciate you taking the time to answer my question."

He looked alarmed, "Does Deidara know you're a bit of a looney tune?"

"Yeah. It's all part of my charm."

We exchanged insults quite happily until we got to the shops, where he stopped talking completely to think about what he wanted to eat. I got bored of watching him scan the shelves and turned away, just to have him grab me roughly by the arm and drag me back.

"Stay nearby," he said firmly, "If I lose you Deidara will fucking eat me alive."

I laughed, "I'm not going to get lost. I just wanted to look at the crisps."

"Fine. We'll look at crisps," He marched off to the snacks aisle and I followed, bemused.

"What are you going to get?" I asked, picking up a can of salt and vinegar Pringles.

"Haven't decided yet," he snapped, adding as an afterthought, "nosy cow."

"You _are_ aware that your inability to go thirty seconds without insulting someone is probably why nobody likes you very much."

"And now you're my shrink? Go analyze a sex dream or something."

I fidgeted on the spot for a moment. "Can I at least go and buy these? Then I can start eating them. It'll give me something to do."

"Oh whatever," He stomped off towards the checkout counters, grabbing a packet of Jaffa cakes and a banana on the way, and I followed with a stifled smile.

"Wait!" I said suddenly. Hidan turned around, "Shouldn't we get something for Deidara? While we're here."

He rolled his eyes, "Aren't you an excellent little wife in training. You can get him whatever you like, you're paying though."

"Fine by me," I said cheerfully, going back to look for something Deidara would like. I eventually returned with party rings and Hidan eyed me dubiously.

"Are you taking the piss?"

"I decided I wanted party rings. He can have the Pringles."

We paid for our things and left the shop, Hidan peeling the banana and cramming half of it into his mouth all at once.

"That's disgusting," I said conversationally.

Hidan chewed for a solid minute before swallowing and replying, "If you don't wanna see, quit staring."

"Are you always this pleasant?"

He smirked widely, "I do my best. Are you always this much fun?"

"You think this is fun? You should see me on a good day."

Hidan cackled and shoved the remainder of the banana into his mouth, leaving conversation completely impossible until we were virtually back at the house. I opened the door for both of us (and stood back as Hidan shoved his way in first), feeling, all things considered, surprisingly good. If I did have to live here for a while, I thought as Deidara started yelling at Hidan for walking on the carpets with mud on his shoes, I decided I could probably get used to it.

I tossed Deidara the Pringles and opened the party rings, nibbling round the edge of an orange one. Providing I could avoid thinking about anything to do with mum, I could hold myself together pretty effectively. I just had to practice keeping all of that stuff walled off in a corner of my mind.

There was a crashing sound from the kitchen as Hidan kicked over a chair to prove some point he was making and I laughed quietly despite myself. With distractions like that, I figured, keeping my mind off the difficult things would be easier at Pein's than anywhere else I could be.


	43. Chapter 43

_**Yes, it's that time again... Erratic update time! Woooo! One day I'll fall into a proper pattern, I promise. All joking aside, thank you for your patience. I have quite a lot of people to thank for reviews this chapter, which is always fun! demon lilith, Aquahina, missmridvika, deathrosekitty, Aiko of the Akatsuki and DestinyGirl1059. Thank you all for your comments and support! We're coming closer to the end now, looking at what still has to happen and the time needed for that I reckon I'll finish on chapter 49/50. With that dramatic update out of the way, enjoy the chapter!**_

_**Disclaimer:**_

_**Just because I'm writing about it, doesn't mean I think I own it.**_

**Study In Contrasts**_**  
**_

Pein got back at around six thirty, Konan following him through the door. They came into the living room, seeing Deidara and I lounging on the sofa.

"Is Hidan here?"

"About fucking time you got back!" Came a distinctive holler from upstairs.

"See if you can guess, yeah."

"And I assume by the fact you're here," Pein continued, addressing me, "things didn't go well with your mother?"

"Not very. I think I'll be taking advantage of your hospitality a little longer, if that's alright?"

"It's fine."

Hidan had scurried upstairs pretty soon after getting back from the shops, but now he appeared in the doorway with a scowl on his face. "When are we eating? All I've had to eat since getting back is Jaffa cakes, what's-"

"And a banana," I interrupted.

"And a banana," he repeated, "but I swear to God if I don't get something to eat soon..."

"I'll organize something," Konan said calmly, heading into the kitchen. Hidan followed her, complaining loudly as he went.

Deidara sat up, "Pein, can we talk later about what Ino's going to do, yeah?"

"Yes, I'll come down sometime after you've all eaten," he took off his jacket, hanging it up in the hallway, then went upstairs.

"Is Sasori staying tonight as well?" I asked.

"No, most people only stay one night at a time, hn. Sasori stays once, sometimes twice a week. Hidan... once every week and a half probably."

"Ah, so this is why you're the only one with a house key? Because you stay here most often?"

"Exactly."

"That'll be nice for me," I stretched out my legs, my feet resting on Deidara's lap, "it's fun having the others around but I like you best."

"Ewww. I don't even want to know what I'm interrupting."

Deidara opened his mouth to have a go at Hidan but I cut him off, poking him in the side with my foot.

I answered instead, "What do you want, Hidan?"

"I was just coming to kindly let you know that food's ready," he looked me up and down, assessing, "but you might want to stay in here. You don't want to put on any more weight."

This time Deidara was the one holding me back, grabbing me round the waist as I got up to beat Hidan into the middle of next week. He let out another one of his slightly manic laughs and wandered back into the kitchen, leaving me fuming and Deidara trying to calm me down.

"I swear, if I so much as see his smug face again I don't think I can be held accountable for my actions."

"Calm down Ino, hn!"

"But he said I was fat!" I wailed.

"What does he know?"

I stopped trying to get away and, not expecting the sudden lack of resistance, Deidara pulled me backwards with enough force to topple us both onto the sofa.

"Ouch, yeah," he muttered feebly.

"Sorry about that," I got up, turning around and pulling Deidara to his feet as well.

"It's alright."

We were halfway to the kitchen when I stopped. "You don't think I'm fat, do you?"

Deidara just laughed. "Come here, hn," I shifted closer to him. One hand he used to pull me even closer, resting it in the middle of my back. The other he slipped round to the back of my neck as he kissed me. It felt like a while before I was forced to pull away (my only other option being to faint from lack of oxygen).

"No," he clarified, his voice a little rough, "I don't think you're fat, yeah."

"You two are completely fucking disgusting."

I pecked Deidara on the lips before bothering to reply. "Thanks for your contribution Hidan."

"I'm trying to eat in here!" He bemoaned, "How am I supposed to keep my food down if you two keep shoving your tongues down each others throats?"

Before I could stop him Deidara was in the kitchen, taking Hidan's collar in one hand and a bread roll in the other. "I thought you were starving, hm? How about I help you out a little, the best way of solving your problem will be more _eating_ and less _mouthing off_."

"Children, play nicely..."

Hidan had to spit out a mouthful of half-chewed bread to reply, "Tell your dumb ass boyfriend that!"

I'd lost interest, focusing instead on what Konan had left us to eat. "Is this soup?"

"What does it look like? Are you blind as well as terminally blond?"

Deidara came over to investigate as well, "Looks like it, yeah. Maybe chicken. I'll grab a couple of bowls."

"It smells good."

Hidan groaned in frustration, swinging back on his chair, "I'd almost rather you two be all horny and gross than try to talk about soup like it's an interesting topic."

Deidara brought over two bowls and I tipped some soup into each. "Spoons?"

"They're in the drawer next to the sink, hn."

"Cool."

"Neither of you are listening to me. I fucking hate being ignored. It's just plain rude."

I wasn't quite able to pretend I didn't hear that one, almost spitting out a mouthful of soup I was laughing so hard. Even Deidara cracked a smile despite himself.

"I don't even care," Hidan announced, standing up, "I'm going back upstairs, so you can get on with dry humping each other under the table or whatever it is you do when you're on your own."

When Deidara and I had finished and cleared up the kitchen a little Pein came downstairs. We followed him through into the living room, Pein sitting in the chair, me and Deidara on the sofa.

"Several things need to be established," Pein began, talking mostly to me, "the first is the likelihood of your mother changing her mind."

"I'm not sure," I said hesitantly, "she's a little like me in that once she's decided on a path it takes a monumental effort to change her mind. And if you do get her to change it, you will literally never be able to change it back again. She was determined to fix things with me, now I've pushed her too far and she doesn't want to let me ruin her life anymore. I saw, after she kicked dad out it was like she just stopped thinking about how she used to feel about him. She just sort of drew a line under it and that was the end. If she's done that with me..."

I remembered the way she'd looked at me, nothing in her eyes but vague irritation. Like she was dealing with a belligerent salesperson, not her daughter. Was it possible that she didn't even love me anymore? I tilted my head back, "Sorry, I just..."

"It's fine," Deidara said quietly, "this is tough to talk about, yeah."

"So we assume for now that we need to be making long-term arrangements. Also, money."

"I have a fair bit in a savings account," I reassured him, "I just need to get access to that, then I can look after myself financially in terms of lunches at school, clothes, toiletries and all that stuff."

"And how will you get access?"

"Uh... I'll figure something out. I probably need to take proof of identity into the bank or something."

Hopefully they wouldn't need authentication from the person who set up the account. I doubted mum would be willing to come in and help me with that.

"School fees?" Deidara asked.

"I'll check," Pein replied, "But in all likelihood the school has been paid for the entire year and we won't have to think about it for the moment. For what it's worth I'll repeat what I said the other day, you can stay here for as long as you need to. Was there anything else?"

Deidara and I exchanged looks and shook our heads.

"Good. I'll see you tomorrow then."

I watched as Pein left, going back upstairs. "He's kind of... strange."

"I know," Deidara put his arms over the back of the sofa and stretched his legs out in front of him, "but as far as adults go there are worse out there, right?"

"Definitely."

/\/\/\/\

The next morning went much like the one before, including (but not limited to) Deidara waking me up and being forbidden to enter the room, an undignified speed shower and a post-breakfast debate about who would do what. Of course, unlike Sasori, Hidan flatly refused to do anything, effing and blinding enough to make the most hardened sailor wince when Pein came in and told him he'd be walking to school if he didn't contribute.

In English I told Hinata what had happened with mum, and afterward. She smiled in sad recognition when I described mum's complete emotional detachment and I remembered that she had to deal with that kind of lack of love every day.

"You could run away," I suggested casually, mostly joking, "Look how well it's worked for me. Okay, my mum doesn't recognize me as a member of her family anymore, but you kind of have that problem already."

Hinata shook her head, "I would never dare run away from home. You can look after yourself, I think you are the sort of person who will always manage to come up fighting. I'm not like that."

"Rubbish," I said scornfully, "you're incredibly resilient. The fact that you are the person you are after being treated the way you have been by your family proves that. You're just too nice to run away. I think a part of you just doesn't want to cause trouble for your parents."

"Maybe that's it," Hinata said with a small smile, "but... sorry to change the subject, but something has been bothering me today."

"What is it? Sorry, I've been kind of wrapped up with all my stuff."

"It's fine, but it's about Sakura," immediately I was on red alert. "I just thought I should point it out, in case you hadn't noticed. Since you've spent more time with the Akatsuki lately."

"So what is it?"

"She's not here today. And wasn't yesterday either."

I gaped at Hinata, "Seriously? How could I miss that?"

"It's probably nothing," she said nervously, "but I thought I should probably mention it."

Orochimoron snapped something at us from the front of the classroom and I turned back to the worksheet in front of me, head reeling.

It was strange, caught up in my own little drama I had all but forgotten about Sakura. Not forgotten, actually. I'd pushed the thought of her and Sasuke to one side, left in a corner of my mind to gather dust. And a part of me had thought that that would freeze their situation until I could get back to look at it again. Apparently not.

Unless, of course, Sakura just had a cold.

Why did that seem so unlikely?

For the rest of the day I resolved to open my eyes and look past myself for once, to see if I'd missed anything else that was important. Lee seemed kind of distracted, that much I noticed, and Sasuke's mood seemed even more foul than normal, which was nice. Naruto seemed pretty distant as well, probably worried about Sasuke since they were inexplicably friends.

I saw Gaara and Sasori walk past each other in the science corridor without so much as looking at each other. That did cheer me up a little actually, I knew Pein would have been happy to see it. If Pein was ever 'happy' about anything, that is.

The most irritating event of the day was having to back to Spanish at the end of it for another stupid 'mentor meeting'. Asuma was just stubbing out his cigarette when I got there, sitting down in the empty third chair in front of Asuma's desk. Shikamaru and Choji were already there, looking bored.

"So!" Asuma said as enthusiastically as he could, "Any news? Gossip? Scandal? Jokes?"

Choji shrugged while looking at the floor, Shikamaru shrugged while gazing at the ceiling and I just stared at a spot on the wall.

"Come on," he sounded disappointed, "at least one of you must have something to share."

Apparently not. But Asuma wasn't about to give up without a fight.

"Okay, well I don't believe that nothing has happened to any of you since we last spoke, so I'm going to offer you the chance to share each others news. Nothing too private," he said hastily, "but if you know there's something juicy that's not being shared..."

I felt rather than saw Shikamaru and Choji turn to look at me and focused on my wall with even more determination. Today at lunch someone had made a comment about seeing me getting out of Pein's car and I hadn't had a clue what to say. Hinata had changed the subject for me, but it seemed the topic hadn't been completely forgotten.

"I don't think Ino's sharing her news," Choji said. I turned a vicious glare on him and he retreated into his chair, turning red.

"I agree," Shikamaru muttered, shutting his eyes to defend himself against the death stare.

"Well come on then Ino!" Asuma grinned, "Tell us what's going on in your life."

"No."

"You know you want to," he pressed.

The last thing I wanted to do was turn it into some game. Then I'd look like I wanted to carry on.

"I'm pretty sure you can't make me. Isn't that against some kind of rule?"

Asuma frowned at that but chose not to respond directly. "Okay then," he checked his watch, "you can go."

The three of us stood up to leave and Asuma held up a hand, "Except for Ino."

I fell back into my seat with a scowl.

"You know," he said once the other two had left, "I just want to help."

"I've got it covered thanks."

"It's my responsibility as your teacher to make sure you're-"

"What? Happy?" I asked, more sharply than I'd intended.

There was an awkward silence while he just sat there, frowning slightly. When he did reply though his tone was mild, "Something like that."

"It's just home stuff," I said eventually. "It's all sorting itself out though."

Asuma looked me in the eyes for a moment, then sighed. "Alright Ino, you can go."

I walked out of school feeling a little irritable. I didn't know what annoyed me more, feeling obliged to tell a teacher about my private life or feeling guilty that he seemed to want so badly for me to trust me. I left the building, holding up a hand to shield my eyes from the low afternoon sun. I caught sight of Deidara, standing with a few of the Akatsuki by the school gate, and went over.

I tapped him on the back and he turned, grinning at me.

"What took you so long?" Hidan asked loudly, "Looking for a tampon or something?"

I shook my head, mystified, "Where do you learn these things? Are you actually a girl or something?" Kakuzu snorted behind his balaclava thing and Hidan looked appalled.

"Hell no! Watch what you say, bitch! Show some respect!"

"How about you try showing some respect for once, hm?" Deidara growled at Hidan.

"Calm down," Sasori said, touching Deidara's arm lightly, "It's not Hidan's fault that he's a simpleton."

"I'll show you who's a simpleton!" Hidan yelled, "Why don't we just fight right here!"

Sasori's brown eyes narrowed slightly in an uncharacteristic display of irritation. "Because we'd be suspended, idiot. And aside from that, how would a fight prove anything about your intellectual capability?"

Kakuzu shoved Hidan roughly, "I say go for it. We'll all back Sasori up when he tells them it was self defense, maybe we can get rid of you for a while."

I elbowed Deidara in the side to get his attention. "Why did Hidan ask what took me so long? Were you guys waiting for me?"

"Actually, yes," Sasori turned his back on Hidan, who was practically foaming at the mouth, to answer me, "Deidara wanted a few of us, and you, to go out and officially welcome you as an honorary Akatsuki member. Somehow most of us ended up agreeing to come."

"Don't get any ideas," Hidan warned, "I'm just here for the food."

"We're welcoming you into our gang!" This was from the boy in the orange mask who I'd never actually spoken to.

"Not exactly," another boy I didn't really know, greenish hair and one side of his face mysteriously more pale than the other, spoke to the masked guy, "we're just going out as a group. _**And Deidara's bringing his girlfriend.**_"

"The irritating kid with the mask is Tobi," Deidara explained, "and the one with the split personality disorder is Zetsu, yeah."

"Alright then," I said, "so what are we doing?"

The seven of us (me, Deidara, Sasori, Zetsu, Tobi, Hidan and Kakuzu. Just to clarify.) took a bus into town and went for sushi, and it was absolute chaos. Hidan managed to offend not only everyone in our group, several times each, but also a wide variety of random passers by with his loud cursing. Tobi kept getting a little overexcited and knocking things over, causing Deidara to become more and more tense and forcing Sasori to remind him time after time to calm down and focus on enjoying himself. Kakuzu and Zetsu were mostly quiet, barring when the bill came at which point Kakuzu broke into an impromptu lecture about the extortionate inflation of restaurant food prices.

By the time Deidara and I started to head back to Pein's it was already almost dark, and I was exhausted but happy. "Thank you," I said, slipping my hand into Deidara's. "It was really great of you to organize that."

"It wasn't a problem, hn."

I opened my mouth reply but was interrupted by my phone, ringing in my bag. "Sorry," I let go of Deidara's hand to find the mobile, sifting through crumpled pieces of paper, loose pens and pencils.

Ah. There it was. In between my makeup bag and my chemistry text book.

"Hello?"

"Hey Ino," Ten Ten, "how are things going?"

"Good thanks. Everything okay with you?"

"Uh... did you give Lee my number?"

Oops. "Yes. Why?"

"Because he just called to ask me out."

"Oh sh- sorry Ten Ten, he just seemed worried about you. What did you say?"

"I said yes," her voice was bleak.

"What?"

"I figured it might help take my mind of Neji. And I guess Lee's sweet, and we have some common interests."

I felt my jaw clench a little, "Ten Ten this is definitive rebound. You don't even _think_ you like him."

"And?"

"And he likes you!"

"Yeah, and?"

"Don't you think," I asked tensely, "you might be being a tiny bit selfish?"

"I guess. But really, it's not like he gets nothing out of it. He likes me, why shouldn't I go out with him? Just a couple of dates if it really doesn't work, but he'll enjoy himself. I didn't give him any expectations, I told him I hadn't seen him in that way but that I'd give it a go."

"You will end up hurting him."

"Maybe, maybe not. Anyway, that's the risk you run when you get into a relationship. I have to go, I just wanted to call you and let you know what was going on with me."

"Right, bye then."

"And Ino?" Her voice became sarcastic, "Thanks for being so supportive. Way to make me feel good about my choices."

She hung up.

"Great," I pressed my lips together in frustration.

"Something wrong, hm?"

"Not exactly. Sorry, there's one more call I ought to make quickly."

Talking on the phone with Ten Ten, and talking about relationships specifically, had reminded me of someone else I needed to talk to. I dialed Sakura's number, praying she'd pick up.

"_Hey! You've reached Sakura Haruno. If I'm not picking up I'm probably busy, but leave a message with your name and number and I'll call you right back. -beep-"_

"Hi, Sakura. It's Ino here. I know you have my number so I'm not going to leave that. I just wanted you to know that I'm really sorry. For giving up on you, even a little. I've had a lot of things going on in the last few days but that was no excuse. I know you got mad at me the other day because you wanted to put me off the scent, I know you know I'm not after Sasuke for myself, and when I was being kind of harsh in martial arts the other day it was because I wanted to see you a bit more like you're supposed to be. Not all drained and miserable, I mean. I think that's everything I wanted to say or explain. I wish I could talk to you in person, but over the phone is better than nothing so please, please call me back. You weren't in school today, Hinata and I were really worried. Hope to hear from you."

I put my phone back in my bag and turned back to Deidara, who was holding an unlit cigarette between his fingers. I raised my eyebrows, "I haven't seen you with one of those for ages. I thought you quit or something."

"I have, yeah. Do I look like I'm smoking it?" He fiddled with it a little, rolling it between his thumb and middle finger, "I just like the way it feels."

Something was bothering him. I reached up with one hand, softly tracing my fingers over the skin of his cheek. I heard his breath catch subtly and his eyes drifted closed, his head leaning into the touch.

"As much as you like the way this feels?"

"Not even close, hn," he replied without opening his eyes.

Moving slowly I stroked my fingers down the line of his jaw, then laid my hand on the back of his neck, pulling his head down enough that I could brush over his lips with mine. Not quite a kiss, but almost.

"And that?" I whispered against his skin.

"Even better."

"Will you tell me what's wrong, if I ask?"

He didn't answer, choosing instead to half open his eyes and pull me into a proper kiss. It wasn't like most of our others, sweet and soft, this was hungry, almost violent in its intensity. I'd felt him leading me this way before, but I'd always pulled back when we started getting beyond what I was comfortable with.

We'd been walking by a park that I'd never seen before, still in an area of town that was unfamiliar to me, and now Deidara pushed me harshly against the railings, angling his head a little to deepen the kiss. His hands were on my wrists, pinning them to my sides, and when I tried to pull them free I swear he growled, tightening his grip.

By now the sky was dark, streetlights casting their shadows, and it gave the scene an added feeling of menace. I was torn between fear and excitement, feeling one of Deidara's hands slide up my arm and across, towards my chest. I remembered the mouth tattoos on his palms and felt a jolt of electricity down my spine.

It wasn't until his hands moved toward my shirt buttons that I remembered we were actually still in a public place and pulled my head away, breaking off the kiss.

"Enough," I muttered, but Deidara didn't seem to hear me, attacking my mouth again and undoing the top two buttons of my shirt with a rough tug.

"Stop," I said, a little louder, this time accompanied by a shove to the chest. He stepped backwards, his breathing ragged and his eyes wild. He turned away for a moment and I took the opportunity to run my fingers through my hair and straighten up my shirt again. When Deidara faced me again he seemed to have calmed down. He held out a hand and I took it without a second thought.

He avoided making eye contact as we started walking again, keeping his head down, but after a few paces he spoke up. "I'm sorry, yeah. Did I scare you?"

"Kind of. But in a good way."

He shot me an amused look.

"Sasori already warned me about your control issues," I said loftily, "okay, he wasn't quite talking about this situation, but I've been fully informed."

"Is that so, hm?"

"Quite."

He made one last attempt to be serious, "You know, I'm not normally that bad, hn."

"Well I hope you haven't been testing it out on other girls lately," I pretended to be shocked.

"No," Deidara rolled his eyes, "I mean in the past, yeah. I think it must just be you."

"Great. Blame me for your own shortcomings."

"Well if it's your fault then," he cut himself off, looking around suddenly, "wait, damn it. I dropped the cigarette."

I laughed, holding his hand a little more tightly, "You don't need that. You've got me," I flicked my hair, "better than any stupid cancer-stick."

Deidara blatantly looked me up and down, then grinned, "You can definitely say that again, hn."


	44. Chapter 44

**_Oh jeez, I'm awful. I'm really really awful. I'm so sorry about the massive unexplained delay, I'm not going to go into details now but if anybody does want to hear why I'm so hideously late PM me and I'll tell you. I'm not going to write any more than necessary, but thank you to anyone and everyone who hasn't given up on me and this story. I promised I'd finish it, and I'm sticking to that. If there are huge mistakes I apologize for that too, I didn't want to slow down the process any more. Hope you enjoy the chapter.  
_**

**_Disclaimer:_**

**_I don't own Naruto. Still._**

**Study In Contrasts_  
_**

That night Deidara and I sat on the bed in the green room, my head on his lap as he stroked my hair.

"When are you next staying at your dad's?" I asked, a little out of nowhere.

"I don't know. Probably not for a while, hn."

"Wasn't it going well last time?"

"It's not that," Deidara sounded like he was grinning.

"Why then?"

"You think I'd leave you here on your own, hm? I'm definitely staying here until you're as comfortable with the place as I am. Then maybe I can go back and see my dad a couple of nights."

Someone knocked on the door and I sat up, glancing at the time on my little alarm clock before answering. "Come in."

Pein opened the door, and I wondered what he wanted at half past eleven at night.

"I think I've solved the mystery of this rival gang that you encountered," he said, "I've been speaking to Orochimaru."

I frowned, "What does he have to do with it?"

"He's involved in the Akatsuki, right?" Deidara looked as confused as I felt.

"Not anymore," Pein replied simply, "When the Akatsuki stopped exercising power over other students he lost interest, turning to a new group of young people. It's a kind of experiment of his, he's got these teenagers with various issues and got them fired up about a rivalry with the Akatsuki. Now they're all set to attack in Orochimaru's name. They're devoted to him. The irony of course being that he views them as nothing more than a curiosity."

That explained a lot. I thought back to Tayuya's message, wondering how Orochimaru had found her and her friends. The whole thing was marginally less sinister now we had a kind of explanation for it though.

"Great, glad we know that," Deidara said sarcastically, "what are we supposed to do about it though?"

"I'm not sure. Orochimaru refused to even consider calling them off, although he has promised to withdraw from them. Maybe that will solve the problem."

"Not knowing Kin," I muttered.

"Sorry?"

"Kin. I don't know how much control she has within the group, but she definitely won't give up just because Orochimaru stops paying attention. For her, this is personal. Although if the others aren't interested in pursuing it without his encouragement it might make her less keen on the idea of revenge. That's just what I would guess, based on what little I know of her."

Pein nodded thoughtfully at that, said goodnight to the both of us and left the room, closing the door quietly behind him.

Speaking of Kin, I looked to Deidara, "Just something to think about, how long until I should actually text her?"

"How long since she last texted you? Hn."

I tried to think back, "It's hard to say. My sense of time has been a bit skewed. Definitely a few days."

"Leave it till this weekend, yeah. Then give her a time and place and don't give her anything else. And for Kami's sake make sure you tell a lot of people where we're going."

"Where _we're _going?"

"No way in hell am I letting you meet that psychopath alone, hn," Deidara said bluntly, "that's not even slightly negotiable."

"I can look after myself you know. I've been doing martial arts a while now. Don't go getting all overprotective."

He grinned, "It's one of the many things you love about me. Admit it, hn."

"Never," I teased, sticking my tongue out.

"Come on," Deidara pushed my shoulder lightly, "time for you to go to sleep."

"Fine."

Although I wasn't quite as at ease as Deidara, I was starting to settle into Pein's house. I no longer felt weird showering there, I knew where to find everything in the kitchen, I didn't quite feel okay with helping myself to food from the cupboards but Deidara was helping me out with that.

Unfortunately, while my out of school life was getting better things in school had to get a little worse. I think it must be one of those universal laws. The next day at school was the third in a row with no signs of Sakura. With no reply to my phone message I was starting to wonder if something really bad had happened. I was looking forward to English so that I could talk to Hinata about it, but when I got there the room was empty.

I looked around, confused, then Hinata came up the corridor. "Orochimaru isn't in," she explained breathlessly, "we have a free period instead."

"Oh cool, that means we can chat."

"Yes, I have some news!" she looked like she was about to burst with excitement.

"Right?"

"I almost can't believe it actually happened," she said faintly, "but Kiba asked me out!"

"That's fantastic!" I hugged Hinata, amazed and delighted. "Tell me what happened!"

She told me that she had gone to his house the afternoon before to see how he was doing. He'd chatted with her for a while, and then he'd commented that in another week his ribs should be healed enough to come off the pain medication.

"That should make going out a little more fun," he'd said, "in fact, how would you feel about hanging out with me. Properly, not just sitting around in my room."

Hinata said she was sure she blushed more than she ever had before, wondering if she was misinterpreting what he was saying.

"D-do you mean... with Ino as well?" She'd asked.

"Nope," Kiba had grinned, "I mean just you and me. Basically, dating."

And she'd nodded once, then fainted.

I laughed at that. "You're going to have to get over that fainting thing, it could make things really inconvenient when it comes to kissing him."

Hinata looked a little dizzy at the thought.

I couldn't bring myself to ruin her good mood with talk about Sakura still M.I.A, so we just talked about Kiba for the hour. It was bizarre, hearing him spoken about like someone you could actually have a crush on, but Hinata was totally adorable, blushing every few seconds just because I happened to mention something like holding hands.

When I left school that afternoon I was a little earlier than Deidara, who had to rush off after art to talk to one of his other teachers, so I waited by the gate for him. I'd only been there a couple of minutes, leaning against the gate post and facing in the direction of the school, when I heard a familiar voice behind me.

"How's it going, Ino?"

I turned around, surprised. "Temari?"

"Yeah," she looked awkward, "I tried calling your house, and even going round, but your mum said she didn't know where you were. Anyway, I was just here to wait for Shikamaru."

I smiled, "Nice to see you though, how are things?"

"Things are... good."

"Did you get my text?"

"Yes. I guess you were right, I'm sorry, it's just that," she wrinkled her nose, not enjoying the apology, "I like this guy a lot. And I don't want to lose him."

"It's fine," I said, "if there was a similar situation between you and Deidara I don't know how I'd react. I understand how you feel."

"Okay. And there's something else I ought to mention, while I'm here."

"Yeah?"

"It's Kin. She's getting worse. Whenever she's with me all she does is talk about how she wants to make you suffer."

"How often do you two hang out?"

"We don't hang out. I still talk to Ten Ten and Kiba, but Kin sometimes comes round to my house for no apparent reason."

"Thanks for letting me know," I glanced back at the school building as the doors opened, Deidara coming out and waving as he saw me, "I'm working on a plan for dealing with Kin. Don't tell her I said so though. As far as she's concerned I'm not even thinking of her, okay?"

"Sure. I'll just wait down the road I think. See you round," Temari gave me a quick hug before turning and walking a little way down the pavement, getting out her phone. I watched her stop by the bus stop, now talking animatedly on her mobile, and wondered if we would truly get back to normal again.

"That was Temari, right?" Deidara asked as he came up, putting an arm around my waist.

"Yes. She apologized."

"That's nice, hn."

Grinning, I turned to Deidara and gave him a quick kiss. "Ready to go home?"

"I like the sound of that, yeah."

Because Pein couldn't give us a lift that afternoon we had to take a couple of buses. As we were waiting for the second one my phone rang.

"Someone's been popular lately," Deidara commented as I answered it.

"Shush. Hello?"

"Hey Ino, it's your dad here."

I pulled a face at Deidara, "Hi dad. What's up?"

"I was just talking to your mum, what on earth is going on?"

"She kicked me out a day or so ago," I said casually, "What did she say to you?"

"She told me you lived somewhere else now, I asked where and she said she didn't know. She gave me your number and said I was welcome to try and find out, but she didn't particularly care so not to bother letting her know."

I laughed, wondering at myself as I did, "Ouch. She really doesn't care about me anymore then?"

Both dad and Deidara seemed vaguely concerned at my apparent ease with this fact.

"That doesn't bother you?" Dad asked carefully.

"Sort of, but I'm taking everything a moment at a time. I think I'm okay because," I smiled reassuringly at Deidara, meaning this for him as well, "I have a lot of people who have been very kind to me. I'm being well looked after."

"Well I want to see you. Are you busy this weekend?"

"I'm not busy."

"Can we meet then?"

I shrugged, "Okay, if you like. Where's good for you? I can get a lift to the park if you want to go there again?"

"If that's what you want to do."

"Great, I'll see you by the swings at three on Saturday. Bye then!"

I hung up, "Sorry about that. Dad was just talking to mum, he was a little worried about my emotional well being I think."

"I can see why, yeah," Deidara scrutinized my face, "are you genuinely not bothered by the situation with your mum? Because if so, that's probably deeply unhealthy."

"Of course it bothers me," I raised an eyebrow, "I don't think she loves me anymore, and that hurts badly. But I'm not going to let her ruin me. She's let go of me? Fine. I'll let go of her too. I know it might seem a bit late, like quitting after being told you're fired, but I refuse to pine over her."

Deidara shook his head disbelievingly, "I didn't know you could be so clinical, hn."

"Mm," I agreed, "I guess I get it from my mum."

While we were on the second bus I tried calling Sakura again, just in case, but only got the machine again. Deidara was looking out the window with a strangely irate look on his face, and I watched him for a little while without saying anything. When he didn't even notice my eyes on him for over a minute I coughed loudly, getting his attention.

"Something is definitely bothering you," I said. "I knew it yesterday, and I asked, but you didn't answer." I fought back a blush, remembering what he had done instead.

"The point is, I want to know. So... tell me."

I saw him think about saying no. I was all too familiar with the obstinate look in his eyes, but then he changed his mind.

"Mum texted me yesterday at school. Says she wants me to spend a few days with her in Iwa sometime soon, yeah. I always get like this when she asks me to."

I cocked my head to the side, "Why is that?"

"Because she always begs me to stay. I hate that, hn. It's like, if she wanted me to live with her so much, why didn't she try harder to keep me when she broke up with dad? I prefer her visiting me here to having to trek out to Iwa. But the thing that really gets me is that under different circumstances I'd much rather live with her..."

That comment made me unreasonably nervous, but I tried to keep it from showing in my face as Deidara trailed off, shrugging uncomfortably.

"Do you think... you might be happier with her? In Iwa?" I asked tentatively.

"No. I wouldn't want to leave the Akatsuki, I get on okay with some of them, and it's nice to feel a part of something. I wouldn't have my studio. I'd probably miss Pein and Konan, kind of. Changing schools would be a nightmare. And worst of all, you wouldn't be there, yeah," he looked out of the window, lips twitching up at the corners in a humorless smile, "all in all, not worth it."

Something about his tone told me that he wanted to end the conversation there, so I tried to think of something else to say. My first thought was about my plans to see dad, and the question popped out of my mouth before I got the chance to censor it.

"Would you like to meet my dad on Saturday?"

Deidara looked taken aback, "Do you want me to?"

"Yes," I realized as I said it that I did genuinely think it was a good idea, "I think it would be good for a lot of reasons. If you'd rather not then I understand-"

"I'll do it, hn. I'd like to get to know at least one of your parents."

/\/\/\/\

After eating that evening Deidara went out for a while (to check on his art studio; since me moving in he hadn't been there once.) and I tried Sakura's mobile once more.

_Third time lucky._

The phone rang for what felt like hours.

"_Hey! You've reached Sakura Haruno. If I'm not picking up I'm probably busy, but leave a message with your name and number and I'll call you right back. -beep-"_

"Hi Sakura. Ino again. I'm more than worried now. Call me, please, I'm starting to think something really awful must have happened."

Five minutes later, miraculously, my phone rang.

"Hello?" I almost didn't dare hope that it was actually her.

"Hey Ino," Sakura's voice. Weak, tired, unhappy but definitely Sakura's voice. I just barely stopped myself from jumping for joy.

"You're alive!"

She laughed, the sound turning into a coughing fit that left her gasping for breath. "Just barely," she quipped once she could take in oxygen again.

"Why haven't you been in school?"

"I left Sasuke."

I didn't reply. I couldn't reply, I was so shocked.

"Ino?"

"Sorry Sakura, what did you just say?"

"I left Sasuke," she started to cry, "I left him and he beat me up worse than he ever has before. I'm fine though, physically, I just... I haven't been eating. Or sleeping. So I've been at home..."

She was still talking, saying something about her parents trying to get her hospitalized, but it was mostly inaudible because she was crying so hard. I didn't know what to say to her. 'Good for you' seemed completely inappropriate for the situation, but I wasn't about to say what a shame it was or what a good couple they'd been.

"You're so brave," I settled for, once she'd stopped even trying to talk, "It will get better. It will hurt less, with time."

"I miss him, Ino," she sobbed, "I know it's stupid but I can't help it. I love him."

"I know," I felt a tear run down my own cheek, "I know you did. But he was going to kill you eventually, intentionally or otherwise."

"He loved me, he's just really bad at love. He doesn't know how. I think I hurt him."

"He'll recover too," I soothed her, "one day you won't even be able to remember how bad it is now."

Sakura just cried and cried, not bothering to try and put any of her pain into words. And I listened, not really knowing what to do except be there. I just sat, holding the phone to my ear, until the harsh sobs became whimpers, which faded into shallow gasping breaths and finally the soft breathing that told me she'd fallen asleep.

When Deidara got back to the house at ten he found me reading my English literature text and still holding the phone, just in case she woke up.

Sakura didn't come into school the next day either, but now that I knew she was recovering at home it didn't worry me as much. Orochimaru didn't show up again, so I spent what would have been an English lesson listening patiently while Hinata talked me through her entire text conversation with Kiba the night before, making sure to laugh and 'aw' in all the right moments just like she and Sakura had when I talked about Deidara.

Don't get me wrong, it wasn't that I didn't enjoy hearing about it, my problem was that I hadn't heard from Kiba about any of it. I would have thought he'd want to share something like that.

I mentioned that fact to Deidara after school that day and he thought about it for a moment.

"Did you text Kiba the minute we started going out, hm?"

I thought back. "Okay, no I didn't."

"And does that mean you don't think of him as your best friend?"

"No."

"There you go then, yeah. Is there anything you need to do before we head back to the house?"

I grimaced, "Unfortunately, yes. I have to go and get my passport from my," wrong! "From mum's house. So I can get access to that stupid bank account."

"Okay," Deidara started towards the bus stop.

I didn't move. "You don't have to come you know. If you don't want to."

He turned back to look at me, "I know. I want to, hn."

"She might be unpleasant," I warned.

"Even more reason for me to be there. Unless you'd rather I didn't come, hm?"

"Not at all," I confessed, "It'd be nice to have the moral support."

"Okay then. As we were, yeah?"

I laughed, catching up with him. "Alright, _yeah_."

When we got to mum's front door Deidara looked at me expectantly.

"Oh, I don't have keys. I posted them back through the letterbox when I picked my stuff up."

"Ah," he nodded and stepped forward, knocking for me.

Mum came to the door. "Yes?"

"I need my passport," I said.

I saw a flash of puzzlement pass across her face, then she shrugged. "I'll have a look for it. You can come in if you like."

I stepped in and Deidara followed suit. I was expecting it to feel alien to me already, but it didn't. That was the hardest thing I think, that it was all so familiar. It felt safe to me. It still felt like home. I glanced up the stairs, a part of me desperately wanting to go up and see my room. See whether she'd completely taken it apart, or whether I'd go in and find my bed, my desk, my bookcase, my wardrobe, as if it was all just waiting for me to come back.

Deidara took my hand and I held it gratefully, glad to have something to hold on to. Tears threatened to well up and I blinked furiously.

"Are you alright, hm?"

I nodded as mum came back, holding the passport. She went to hold it out to me, then saw my hand intertwined with Deidara's and froze for a moment.

"I see," she said, her voice faintly contemptuous, "is this where you're staying? You really are your father's daughter."

She tossed the passport carelessly towards me, but I stood motionless. It would have fallen on the ground, or hit me, but Deidara reached forward, catching it easily. "I know the family history reference, yeah," he stepped forward a little so that he was marginally closer to mum than I was, "but I can't help but think, better her father's daughter than her mother's."

"Excuse me?" Mum looked outraged.

"How can you change your feelings so quickly?" I asked softly, "How can you love me one day and not even care where I'm living the next?"

"You just pushed me too far, Ino," mum replied, her voice cold. "All I did was try to help you and time after time you threw it back in my face. I stopped recognizing you. I didn't change my feelings at all; I still love my daughter with all my heart. I don't see anything of her in you though."

Even before the tears fell I was disgusted with myself for letting them. I should have come prepared for something like this, I knew from my little experience of doing exactly the same thing as mum that the best, and sometimes only, way to stop loving someone is to start hating them.

I felt Deidara tense up beside me and held his hand a little more tightly, trying to rein him in.

"Come on," I muttered, "let's go home."

"Home," Deidara said, relaxing a little, "good plan, hn."

I opened the door, pulling Deidara out behind me, and the resounding slam that followed us was just another unnecessary reminder of how very unwelcome I was.


	45. Chapter 45

**_I'm not sure exactly what the time gap was between the last update and this one, but as I upload this I'm already more than halfway through chapter 46 so the next one shouldn't be long. Huge thank you to all the people who've been fave-ing my story, and also many thanks to demon lilith and shourin for their reviews last chapter. I know you've heard it all before, but reviews really do make my day. Here's the next chapter!_**

**_Disclaimer:_**

**_I never said I owned it, and that's because I DON'T._**

**Study In Contrasts_  
_**

I surveyed the small bedroom with a sense of satisfaction. I'd been busy since leaving mum's. I'd been a bit of a wreck on the bus, sniffing and whimpering like an abandoned puppy, but Deidara had somehow held me together. Then I'd seen an HSBC bank (the home of my savings account, I'm not as a general rule inspired by random banks) and I'd decided, well, why put off till tomorrow etc? We'd hopped off the bus and gone into the bank, where the nice bank lady said she couldn't give me my money.

"I'm sorry," She said, looking genuinely apologetic, "you have to have permission from the person who set up the account. You can get them to sign this form allowing you to withdraw a certain amount, it only really needs a signature since you're over sixteen now, but we can't just let you take money out."

I would have given up then – I really wasn't in the mood for fighting – but Deidara grabbed my hand.

"No problem," he said cheerfully, "we just live round the corner, we'll be right back, yeah."

He took a form and we left the bank.

"Right," he looked at me, "do you know what your mum's signature looks like, hm?"

I grinned, "You are bad. I think I do though, it's almost exactly like mine. Do you have a pen on you?"

He didn't, we had to go into another shop and buy a cheap ballpoint pen, but I signed the form in a rough approximation of my mother's signature. We went and got hot chocolates, not wanting to go straight back to the bank in case it looked kind of suspicious, then walked back into the bank forty minutes later. Within half an hour we were leaving again, this time with £150 in my pocket, and the bank lady was kind enough to let me know that I had close to two thousand pounds left in my account.

The first thing I did was go to Argos and buy some clear plastic boxes (stack-able) and a hairdryer. We took those back to Pein's, then Deidara gave me a lift to Kiba's house where my lovely best friend was only too happy to let me take my boxes of clothes away with me. I also got the chance to congratulate him on his new girlfriend, which was nice, and Deidara invited him over to hang out on Sunday so that he could see where I was staying.

Finally we drove back home, where I unpacked the contents of the cardboard boxes into the plastic boxes. Okay, it wasn't stylish. But it was tidy, it was a fresh start and it was all mine.

Dinner was pasta with an olive and tomato sauce, and Deidara and I spent a fun hour playing truth or dare. Both of us preferred dares (what truths could we ask anyway? We'd pretty much covered it all in the question game back when we started dating.) but after Deidara had to run topless down the street, not just embarrassing but flipping freezing, and I had to try and eat the peel off a satsuma we both decided to call it quits.

Deidara didn't make up a story for me that night. He told me our story, starting with our first meeting and, presumably, ending with him sitting next to me as I fell asleep. I wouldn't know, I only heard up to my party before drifting off.

And if I woke up in the middle of the night, tears soaking my pillow after a bad dream that was already fading and a word that sounded suspiciously like 'mama' dying in my throat... well what's an hour or so in the middle of the night, when everything else is going so well?

I felt pretty fragile the next day, so when I got dressed I did so carefully. I wore a pair of dark skinny jeans with a gray and pink striped off-the shoulder t-shirt. The outfit clung to the curves of my hips without actually exposing all that much. Perfect for feeling sexy as well as comfortable. I left my hair loose, even clipping my bangs back so that both my eyes were on show, and when I went downstairs for breakfast I could tell by the look in Deidara's eyes that I'd done good.

"Morning," I smiled.

"And to you, yeah. Sleep well?"

"Yep. You?" I went over to the cupboard for a bowl, grabbing a spoon from the drawer and sitting down. I poured myself some Honey Loops, inexplicably starving.

"Not too badly thanks."

"Ready to meet my dad later?"

"I think so, hn. What's he like?"

I sat back, considering the question. "He's a bit like a teenage boy version of me in an adult's body. He can be quite immature in some ways, but his heart's in the right place."

"So does he live round here, hm?"

"I don't actually know. He dodges any question about his living arrangements. Last I heard he was staying with an old friend of his, but he must have been here over a month now."

"Well I'm curious about him, that's for sure. I've seen your mum be nice and I've seen her be a bitch, but in neither of those instances did I think she was much like you, yeah. You must have got your personality from somewhere."

"I've always thought I picked most of it up from the people I hung out with, but I don't know. I'm looking forward to seeing what you think!"

We split the breakfast clearing easily enough; I cleared and dried, he washed and put away. Then I did some studying in my room while Deidara listened to music in the red room next door. I knocked experimentally on the wall separating the two rooms, and a couple of seconds there was a knock back. That little game entertained us for a surprisingly long time.

Eventually it was time for lunch, sandwiches, and three o'clock started to loom on the horizon. I put some makeup on, subtly smokey eyes and faintly pink tinted lip gloss just to make sure I looked polished. I picked up my coat (black, felt-material and belted at the waist) and went downstairs to meet Deidara in the hall, all ready to defend myself for getting made up, only to find that he'd made a bit of an effort himself.

He was wearing dark jeans as well, a navy blue t-shirt and a leather jacket. He'd also put his hair up in it's usual ponytail with bangs over his left eye, rather than having it down like it had been at breakfast. I put my boots on sitting on the bottom stair and stood up, slipping my arms into my coat sleeves.

"Good to go?" I asked.

"Yeah."

There was a pause. "Right then... shall we?"

"Oh, yeah, of course," Deidara shook himself out of whatever daydream he'd been in and opened the door, letting me out first.

"I haven't even seen Pein today," I observed as I got into the car, "is he okay with us borrowing his car again?"

"I asked him yesterday and he said it was fine, hn."

It was only about twenty minutes to the park in a car and the closer we got the more nervous I was. I was desperate for dad and Deidara to get along, and I started to wonder if I should have organized a proper meeting for them, rather than just randomly inviting Deidara along. That was a point as well, dad didn't know he was going to be meeting my boyfriend.

Crap! I paled slightly, remembering that I hadn't even told him I had a boyfriend yet.

Well, this was certainly going to be interesting.

Deidara parked the car effortlessly down the road, coming round and opening my door for me. "Okay," I said as I got out, "would you mind hovering in the distance for a minute before I introduce you? It's just, he doesn't know you're coming, so I'd like to let him know at least a few seconds before I introduce you."

"No problem, I'll hang back a bit and you can signal when you're ready, yeah," he smiled reassuringly, "stop frowning so much. You'll get premature wrinkles."

I put my arms around him, breathing in his smell. "I just really want this to work."

"Well, I'll be on my best behavior," he kissed the top of my head, "now go meet your dad, hn."

As I approached the swings I could make out my dad, pacing up and down in front of them. There were a couple of kids playing here today, which was actually really unusual, trying to run up the slide and push each other off the roundabout. Dad noticed me and waved me over, looking excited to see me.

"Ino!" He held out his arms as I came closer and I laughed, shaking my head. "Fine, fine. How are you? I tried to talk to your mother again but she just hung up as soon as she realized it was me." he seemed genuinely concerned, which I was kind of touched by.

"I'm doing great, considering the circumstances," I scrunched up my nose a bit, "listen, there's someone I want you to meet."

"Oh?" He peered around.

"He's staying away until I've explained the situation to you."

"Situation?"

I hadn't even considered how much I was going to tell him, which is probably why so much ended up coming out, "He's my boyfriend. His name's Deidara and he goes to my school and before you ask, we've been dating for a few weeks now. I sort of invited him on a whim, but I'm hoping you two get along."

Dad was looking stunned, and not like he was going to say anything in the next few seconds, so I turned around and scanned the park for Deidara. I found him over by the sign post, leaning against it, and waved at him. He stood up straight and began walking over.

"Is that him?" Dad asked and I nodded.

"Be nice."

"I'm always nice!"

Deidara stopped next to me, holding out a hand to my dad. "Nice to meet you Mr Yamanaka, hn."

Dad shook his hand, relaxing into his usual social self, "Please, call me Inoichi. So you're dating my daughter?"

"Oh dad, you're not going to pull all that old-fashioned 'what are your intentions?' crap?"

He laughed, "No, I just wanted to see how he'd react."

"Shall we go get a coffee or something?" I suggested, "It's seriously too cold for standing around outside. There's Starbucks somewhere down the road I think."

"Sounds like a good idea to me," dad agreed. "Deidara?" he seemed to be testing out the name as much as asking his opinion.

"Lead the way, yeah."

So I did, while dad interrogated Deidara about his interests and A levels, the two of them chatting happily.

Once we were all sat down with drinks Dad's mood became more serious. "Sorry Ino, I don't know how much Deidara knows about your home situation at the moment but I-"

"Oh, he knows everything," I interrupted, "I knew you'd want to talk about it. Don't worry."

"Well that's good. Look, won't you tell me where you're staying?"

I resisted the instinct to glance at Deidara. "I'm not sure about telling you where..."

"Can you tell me what happened then?"

"If you like," I thought for a moment, trying to come up with a synopsis, "We had an argument because she was making more rules than I was comfortable with. Oh, this after the grounding that you already knew about. I told her I'd rather leave and she said that was fine, so I did-"

"But where did you go?" Dad asked again, holding up a hand to stop me from objecting again, "Okay, don't say if you don't want to. But just out of interest, why are you so reluctant to tell me?"

"I don't want to get anyone in trouble."

"I promise I won't make trouble. You said you were being looked after, am I right? I don't want to mess that up for you. I'm just curious."

This time I did look at Deidara. "What do you think?"

"I say tell him. Maybe even take him back to the house, hm?"

"I don't know about that," I looked back at dad, "but okay. I'll have to give you some back story though."

"Fine by me."

"Well then," I continued, "backing up a bit, Deidara sometimes stays... wait, shouldn't you tell this part?"

Deidara looked uncertain, "You think?"

"It's your story. Just summarize."

He shrugged, "If you say so, hn. I don't always get along that well with my dad. Fundamental difference in personalities, yeah. So I sometimes spend some time at a friend's house. This guy's called Pein, he's a few years older than us and he lets anyone from my group of friends crash there when we need to get away for a while. There are three of us that take advantage of that with any kind of regularity but I stay there most. I've known him coming on three years now, so I can vouch for him, hn."

Dad nodded, "Fair enough. So, back to the night of the argument?"

I took over. "When mum left my room I decided that I was going to take her up on that suggestion of leaving, so I texted Deidara to ask if Pein would mind me staying at his place for the night. I'd already met him a couple of times so I knew I could trust him. I packed a bag, climbed out the window and got picked up by Pein about ten minutes later."

I paused to see how dad was taking it, but he didn't seem phased so far.

"Mum called that evening on my mobile, freaking out, and we had another argument. Then she said that if I didn't go back right away then she didn't want me to go back ever, and I said there was no way I was just leaving, so that was that. The next afternoon I went to her after school to say sorry, because obviously I didn't actually want to move out, and she'd packed up my clothes and stuff and wouldn't even talk to me. So I went back to Pein's and I've been living there ever since."

"Are you staying there at the moment as well?" Dad asked Deidara.

"I am, but there are two bedrooms, hn. I didn't want to leave Ino alone there because I knew she might feel awkward, Pein's a really great person and I owe him a lot but he's socially crap."

"What are you doing for money?"

"I'm using my savings account at the moment," I answered, "I mean, I don't have to buy food for the house but I pay for my own lunch at school and any clothes I want."

Dad got out his wallet and brought out a small stack of notes, handing them to me.

"Dad, for real?" I didn't count the notes but just by flicking through I knew there had to be over a hundred pounds there.

"Of course. It's the least I can do. I know you're not sure about it, but I would love to see where you're staying."

I frowned uncertainly at Deidara and he laughed. "I'll call Pein if you like, see if he minds, yeah."

"Yes please."

Deidara got up, walking outside so he could hear his conversation. I watched dad watch him leave, wondering what he was thinking. Once Deidara was out of the shop dad turned back to me.

"He seems very nice."

I smiled, "Tell me about it. There's been a lot of crazy stuff going on, not all to do with me, and he's kept me sane through it."

"I like him. He looks at you like he wants to take care of you, but there's nothing patronizing in it."

"You have no idea how happy I am to hear you say that."

Dad laughed, "I'm kind of amazed my opinion matters to you at all to be honest!"

The door to the coffee shop opened again and Deidara came back in, sitting down with a grin. "Pein says it's fine. Inoichi, do you want to come in the car with us? I can drive you back here afterward."

"That sounds fine."

And so it was that I ended up showing dad around Pein's house, pointing out the green room as my room and the red room as Deidara's. Once he'd seen the whole house we sat in my room for a bit, dad looking around as if he found the whole thing slightly astonishing.

"I'm lucky to have so much support," I acknowledged as I leaned back against the bed.

A sly grin crept across dad's face and I guessed what was coming, "What's it like, technically living with your boyfriend?"

"Nice," I said carefully, "are you going to be nosy?"

He held his hands up in front of him, placating, "I'm just making sure that the two of you aren't doing anything untoward!"

"I'll tell you what happens if you like. Every night Deidara comes into my room and sits on the bed," dad looked as if he was wondering whether he should have brought up the topic, "and he talks to me until I fall asleep."

"He what?"

"Lately I was seriously stressed out," I explained, "and I stopped being able to get to sleep. When I told Deidara about it he started phoning me at night to tell me a story, and that helped me fall asleep faster. So the most convenient thing about living in the same place is that he doesn't have to waste a lot of credit every night telling me stories. There's nothing going on."

"That is... really quite sweet, I suppose."

I snorted, "You have the soul of a poet. Shall we go downstairs and you can have a little chat with Pein?"

"Yes please," Dad stood up, looking around the room once more. "It's quite nice, isn't it?"

"Yes. I feel like," I hesitated, not used to sharing my feelings with dad, "I feel like this is a good place for me to recover."

He didn't say anything, watching me with steady eyes, and I found myself continuing without really meaning to.

"I'm not expected to be anyone here. And it's a good place to relearn my own boundaries, socially, emotionally... am I making any sense here?"

"I think so," he took a deep breath, "Look, I'm just going to put this out there because I think it's important you know. I have my own place here now, well, it's about half an hour's walk from your old school. I got a flat with two bedrooms so that you could feasibly stay over sometimes, but if you want to move in with me you're completely welcome."

Then he broke into a grin, "Serious moment over. You can think about that, or not, and I'm not going to give you a time limit to reply or anything. The offer's open indefinitely. Now, where's this Pein guy?"

"Downstairs," I replied, "In the living room probably. I'll show you the way."

I left dad in Pein's capable hands and went back upstairs, finding Deidara sitting cross-legged in my room when I got there.

"Look what the cat dragged in," I teased, sitting down next to him. "So what do you think of my dad?"

"I like him, yeah," Deidara put an arm around my shoulders, drawing me a little closer, "I think you're more like him than you are like your mum."

"Really?"

"You're both much lighter than she is. I mean, it's a spectrum, hn. She's right at the serious end, this is how I see her anyway, and your dad's right at the fun end. You're much better balanced than both of them, but I reckon you're naturally closer to light than serious."

"Are you trying to call me flippant?"

"See, this is what I mean," he laughed, "you're more likely to turn a conversation toward cheerful topics and a jokey tone than the opposite. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it, yeah."

"I'm not really sure how to take that."

"Why don't you give me the benefit of the doubt and take it as a compliment?"

"Fine," I pecked him on the cheek, "Thanks for the compliment."

Deidara turned his head, pressing his lips to mine gently. We hadn't really been that physical with each other since Wednesday, every time we'd kissed I'd felt him holding back slightly. This time was no different, after a second or two of contact he broke away, turning his head just enough to show that it was more than just a pause for breath.

"I was enjoying that," I said casually, making him chuckle.

"And you think I wasn't?"

"Well why did you stop then?"

"Why do you think, hm?"

I moved round, kneeling in front of him. "Because I'm so irresistible you're worried once you start, you won't be able to stop."

"Maybe that has something to do with it, yeah."

Quickly, not giving either of us too much time to think, I leaned forward to kiss him again. This time when he tried to pull away I moved with him, holding on a second longer before letting him go. "I trust you," I said, looking into his eyes unflinchingly, "you just need to trust yourself."

"Well I don't," Deidara snapped, the sudden aggression making me sit back on my heels, "what are you trying to achieve here? Hn. Do you want me to hurt you?"

This time when I tried to move toward him he pushed me away immediately, "I don't know what this strategy is supposed to be, but you're going to regret it if you don't back off, yeah."

"Well that's my choice, right?" I lifted my chin defiantly, "If you're stopping because you don't want me, fine. But if you're keeping me away to protect me, don't."

Deidara watched me with narrowed eyes, chest rising and falling with each shallow breath. I gave him all of five seconds to move if he wanted to, then grabbed a handful of his t-shirt and yanked him towards me, crushing my lips to his. This time he responded, shoving me backwards so that I was lying on the floor and slanting his mouth against mine, kissing me with the same force that had been so scary just a few days ago.

I was still a little afraid, with him kneeling above me, his legs either side of mine, I knew I was completely at his mercy. But I'd expected it this time, even forced him into it, and there was something thrilling about knowing I could get him this worked up. Sensations came thick and fast, his hair brushing occasionally against my face, his breathless pants in the brief moments our lips were actually apart, his hand against the bare skin of my ribcage and inching up, when did that happen?

I made a conscious decision to be bold, slipping my hands around his back. One hand I left resting just below his shoulder blades, the other I shifted down until I felt the edge of his shirt underneath my palm. I slid it upwards, tugging insistently when I'd got as far as I was going to without his cooperation.

"Are you really trying to undress me, hm?" His words were muffled by the fact that he was actually speaking into my mouth, but I could hear something in his voice that reminded me what I was dealing with. It was harsh, it was dark... and it was incredibly sexy.

"Yeah. I am. I'm gonna need your help though."

"Alright," he sat up for a moment, pulling it over his head, then leaning back over to pick up where he left off. I stroked my hands down his chest, earning myself a stifled groan.

Deidara roughly pushed my t-shirt out of his way. He was restricted to only using one hand, since he was using his other arm to support himself while leaning over me, and when he ran that hand abruptly over the material of my bra I let out a gasp. I'd never felt more sensitive in my life.

Which is probably why I took a moment to notice that the door had just opened.

"Sorry," dad backed away, covering his eyes, "I'm sorry, I'm really sorry, I should have knocked."

His apology was kind of ruined by the fact that he was clearly trying exceptionally hard not to burst out laughing.

Deidara shifted himself to one side, putting his top back on, and I quickly rearranged my own t-shirt.

"Nothing going on, huh?" Dad said innocently, struggling to keep a straight face. Then he caught the embarrassment in my face and sobered up. "I really am sorry."

"It's fine," I muttered ungraciously, face burning.

"I was just coming up to say I was going. Pein told me which bus to take-"

"I can give you a lift, yeah," Deidara offered, "that is, unless you'd rather not."

"No, that would be lovely, thank you."

"Okay, I'll go wait in the car, hn."

Deidara stood up, heading downstairs and leaving me and dad to say goodbye.

"Sorry about," I made a vague gesture and dad smiled.

"No, it's my fault. This is your room, I should have knocked first."

"Yeah, but..."

"There's no reason to be embarrassed," I looked skeptically at him and he laughed, "okay, I can see why you are, but you don't need to be."

"Whatever," I shrugged, "I'm sure I'll recover from the shame one day. I guess I'll see you next weekend?"

"I guess you will."

"Actually," I said slowly, "maybe... are you free sometime next week?"

"I'm free almost all of next week. Why? Do you want to meet sooner?"

"I was thinking maybe I could come see your place. Just to check it out."

Dad was incredibly restrained. I caught the briefest glimpse of excitement in his expression, then he schooled his face into 'pleased but cool'. "I'd really like that. Shall I pick you up after school?"

"Yeah. How's Tuesday for you?"

"Perfect. Now I really had better go, I don't want to leave your poor boyfriend waiting around."

"Cool."

Dad turned to leave and I cleared my throat, getting his attention. He looked a little confused at first, then I glanced pointedly at his arms. He seemed to get it, raising his arms hesitantly.

"Oh really," I sighed, "if you insist," and I walked forward to hug my father.

It wasn't earth-shattering, not that I was expecting it to be, it was just nice. I leaned my head against his chest, and I was surprised how ordinary it felt. I let myself enjoy that for a few seconds, then stepped back.

"Go on," I pushed his shoulder jokily, "away. I'm sick of the sight of you."

"Fair enough," he laughed, "I'll see you on Tuesday then?"

"Definitely. Bye dad."

Once he'd left I sat for a minute, lost in thought. I wondered what it would be like to live with my dad. I didn't really feel like I could claim to know him, seeing as how we hadn't so much as spoken for years, but on the other hand surely a father/daughter link isn't as easy to break as all that? It certainly didn't feel like we were strangers. He got on my nerves sometimes, he could be too flippant and silly, but he also seemed to understand me better than I thought he did.

I would bet money that he knew I'd notice if he didn't ask for a hug, and did it on purpose so that I'd miss it and ask for one myself. Not that I minded. It was, after all, exactly what I would have done if I'd been going for the same effect.

Well, on Tuesday I'd be able to have a nose around and see what I thought about the flat itself.

Oh, and as for those of you who are wondering why I picked Tuesday specifically: I hadn't forgotten that I had another job to do on that Saturday.

Kin was long overdue a text from me.

"Wednesday. 5 o'clock. Meet me at the same place you found me and Kiba the other day."

Deidara got back from driving dad to the park and seemed reluctant to talk to me, eating dinner quickly and vanishing up to his room as soon as he'd cleared his own plate away. I responded in kind, staying put in my own room and doing some revision. Chemistry was a lot harder in the advanced group and without Sakura's help I'd been struggling. Night came around and I got into my pajamas, brushing my hair and putting it up into a ponytail. Then I shuffled the few steps out of my room and down the hallway to Deidara's door.

I knocked, waiting for his sleepy "Come in, hn," before opening the door. He was in the same tracksuit trousers and t-shirt he normally slept in, sitting on bed.

"Oh," he seemed a little taken aback to see me there, "I'm not late am I?"

"No. It's only twenty to ten. Although I wasn't sure you were going to come, you've been a bit off with me."

"Not on purpose, yeah."

"Big fat fibber."

He raised a blond eyebrow, "Little immature, hm?"

"Do you mind if I sit?"

"Go ahead," he said grudgingly and I perched myself next to him.

"I think we might need to have a bit of a chat about earlier."

"What's there to talk about?" Deidara viewed me out of the corner of his eye, "We got a little carried away and your dad walked in, hn."

"Is that why you're being funny?"

"Glad I'm entertaining you."

I bumped him playfully with my shoulder, "Ha flipping ha, I meant funny peculiar, not funny amusing."

"I know, yeah," he rubbed a hand over his face, "to be honest, embarrassing though it was I think it's a good thing your dad came in when he did."

"Why?"

He looked at me like I was a very small, and very stupid, child, "You know why, hn."

"No, I don't," I said stubbornly, "why don't you explain it for me?"

I saw his jaw clench slightly and reminded myself to be careful. For all my prodding I did appreciate that he could be dangerous, potentially, and despite what I know it looked like I really didn't want to push him into proving it to me.

"I love you," he said firmly, "but I also want you. Those two facts are completely separate and inextricably linked. Sitting next to you now, both are clear in my head, yeah. When I get like I got earlier, things get cloudy and sometimes the nicer feelings take a backseat."

"I know."

He rolled his eyes, "So why are you asking?"

"Because I don't see why it's such an issue," I saw him gearing up for a rant and quickly corrected myself, "Okay, I do see why it's an issue. But I'm talking purely from my point of view. Now, I know you love me. I trust that fact. I know you wouldn't deliberately hurt me and I know you wouldn't ever want to force me to do something I didn't want to do."

I leaned a little closer, talking softly into his ear, "But here's the thing: I want you too. At no point today were you forcing me to do anything. In fact, I think if anyone was doing any forcing it was me."

"What's your point, hm?"

"I don't want to have to assault you every time I want to make out. And I want you to let go a little more."

"You want me to let go _more_, yeah," Deidara said flatly.

"Yep."

"As in, more than earlier."

"Yep."

I laid a hand gently on his arm and he flinched slightly, not expecting it.

"... are you trying to kill me?"

"Not in the slightest," I leaned over again, kissing the corner of his mouth (it was the best I could do with him turned away the way he was), "I'm trying to help you."

He shifted on the bed, turning around so that he could kiss me back. Gently at first, but with slowly increasing pressure. Then he stopped. "Trying to help me? Or wanting to make out? Hn."

"Is it okay if it's a little bit of both?"

He smirked, and I knew that I'd won. For the moment at least. "I think I can live with that, yeah."

Almost before I knew it we were in the same position we'd been in in my room, carrying on from where we were interrupted. And, as I'd predicted, the more I knew what to expect the less afraid I was when I started to see that feral side of Deidara's personality taking over.

Because this was the thing. It was just another side of his personality, not an entirely new one, and that meant that as intimidating and rough as he was I knew that there was still a big part of him in there that cared about me.

And I will say this much. Lying on a bed is a heck of a lot more comfortable than the floor.


	46. Chapter 46

_**This one's not as long as the last, sorry about that, but I'll try to have the next chapter up ASAP. I'm away at a funeral tomorrow, so when I get back I'll have to catch up on schoolwork before I can work on the story, but I should have the next upload ready by next Wednesday, so long as everything goes to plan. Huge huge thank you to demonlilith and missmridvika for the reviews, you guys are far more patient with me than I deserve. Hope you enjoy.**_

_**Disclaimer:**_

_**Don't own.**_

**Study In Contrasts**_**  
**_

I woke up trapped between the wall and a lightly-snoring Deidara.

Just to clarify things, we didn't sleep together. Well, only in the most literal sense in that we did technically fall asleep in the same bed, but that was it. Well, not _it_. Oh for goodness' sake... We didn't have sex, let's leave it at that, okay? And no, I'm not going to go into details about what we did do. Nosy.

Anyway, I think I must have drifted off again because when Deidara sat up I woke up with a start.

"Good morning, hn," he seemed kind of amused by something and I glared suspiciously at him.

"And to you. What's so funny?"

"This is the first time I've actually seen you first thing in the morning," he cocked his head to the side, a smile pulling at the corners of his mouth, "I don't see what you were so worried about, yeah."

I lifted a hand to check my hair but he stopped me, catching my wrist firmly, "Don't. You look fine. Just trust me, hn."

"Trust you?" I said in mock-horror, "After what you were like last night? No freaking way!"

"Hilarious."

"Aw, you know I'm just teasing," I put my arms around his waist and he lay down again, one hand resting on my arm and the other on my back. I shifted, settling my head on his chest, and realized that my hair was loose.

"What happened to my hair tie?"

"I'm not sure, yeah. I think it might be somewhere over there with my shirt."

Running my eyes over the room I saw the aforementioned t-shirt in a heap by the door. "Did I throw that over there?"

"Don't you remember?"

"Yes I _remember_, I just wasn't paying that much attention to what I did with the stupid shirt."

"I don't think I approve of the careless way you treat my stuff, hn."

"And I don't think _I _approve of how boring you're being."

"Boring?" He eyed me, bemused, "I can't believe you can accuse me of being boring, yeah. Of all the criticisms..."

"True," I ran a hand over the smooth skin of his stomach, feeling the muscles tense reflexively, "okay, you have your not-boring moments."

Deidara swatted my hand away, "That tickles," he complained, "and you're making me feel slightly used, hm."

"Rubbish. You were totally loving it."

He grunted noncommittally, so I traced my fingertips lightly over his chest, earning a hiss. I waited for him to tell me to cut it out but when I actually looked at Deidara's face his eyes were dark with a kind of hunger.

"Not again," I flicked him on the nose and suddenly found myself trapped as he rolled over, sitting up so that he was weighing down my legs. His hands pinned my wrists to the mattress. I felt a spark of fear, a burst of adrenaline, and tried to hide it in case it made the situation worse. I gazed seriously at him while he shook his head slowly from side to side.

After a moment had passed he seemed to relax, getting off me and standing up. He turned back to me with a sigh. "Sorry."

"It's fine. I'm learning the boundaries. The occasional incident is only to be expected."

My voice was casual, but I held my faintly trembling hands behind my back. It was just too early in the morning for that kind of scare. Deidara scowled in reply.

"It's not fine. No way is it fine to frighten you, yeah."

"Who's frightened?"

He raised an eyebrow, gently pulling one of my faintly shaking arms from behind me by way of evidence as he sat back down on the bed.

"And it's worst now because every time I snap like that I'm worried it'll put you off repeating last night," he added, letting me have my hand back, "which is the last thing I want, hn."

"Don't be silly," I grinned at him, "I'm learning the rules as I go, but there are definitely rules. And so far one rule seems to be that you don't go schizo until I start saying no."

Deidara looked incredulously at me for a moment before laughing despite himself. "So, what? You never say no, hm?"

"Exactly. I never _say _no. I just have to sort of lead you in other directions."

"That's the stupidest plan I've ever heard in my life."

Fair enough, it wasn't exactly practical, but I'd hardly had long to work on it! I was just about to explain this when I heard my phone's text alert go off next door. It was a light, airy jingle and Deidara looked around, confused.

"What was that?"

"My phone," I got up, "I'll go check it, it's probably Kiba asking when to get here or something."

"That's the noise your phone makes when it's not on silent? Hn."

"Yes," I said patiently, having to slightly climb around Deidara to get off the bed. "Is that so difficult to wrap your head round?"

"It just isn't the type of thing I thought you'd go for, yeah."

"I don't think I want to know the type of thing you do think I'd go for."

"Probably not," he agreed cheerfully as I left. I found my phone, checking the new message.

"no prob. u mite wana bring a frend. or more than 1, if u can find sum.

-Kin"

Ugh. Even without being anywhere near me, Kin somehow retained the ability to wreck my good mood completely.

"Not Kiba then, hm?" Deidara had followed from his room, crouching down next to me to have a look at the text. I went to move it away reflexively, then forced myself to hand it over for him to read. Although it went against all my instincts I knew it would be stupid to refuse his help on this.

I watched without a word as Deidara's eyes narrowed to angry slits, then he let out the breath he'd been holding while he read and looked at me.

"You didn't tell me you texted her, hn."

"I was waiting for her response."

"Okay," he stood up, passing the phone back to me, "when are you meeting her?"

"Wednesday at five. At the park."

"Right, this is what we're going to do, yeah. I'm going to talk to the Akatsuki and see how many of them are willing to come. You're going to talk to Kiba and anyone else who you think will be able to take care of themselves, just in case something happens."

I frowned, "Don't you think that's slightly going overboard? She only has, what, five allies?"

"You forget, this is about more than just you. We can kill two birds with one stone here by showing up in numbers that prove it's not worth it for these pests to mess with us, and we can show Kin that you're much better protected than she could ever hope to be, hn."

"You think that'll be enough to put her off? She'll just wait until she can get me on my own."

"So why did she tell you to bring a friend, hm? If she just wants to get her revenge on you, why not just get you to come alone now and save herself some effort?"

"Because she thinks she knows what I'll do in response to that text," I replied confidently, "she thinks either I'll just tell Kiba, in which case she can take us both easy, or she thinks I'll go alone, even easier. She'll have told her gang that there's a chance I'll bring you too, but she doesn't really think that's likely."

"How do you know that's what she's thinking? So much for not knowing her all that well."

I smiled sadly, "However much I did or didn't understand her, she used to know me pretty well. For all her faults, Kin's not that bad at reading people. Back when we were friends I didn't trust easily, if at all, and I was bad at asking for help or even recognizing when I needed it. I'm different now, but she doesn't know that."

"Fine. Well you can have your one-on-one moment with her if you like, so that she knows you won't be any easier a target without us around, yeah. But we'll still be there."

"It'll look stupid," I argued, "like I'm scared of her. You can come, Kiba can come. If you want Sasori there then that's fine, but no more than that."

"You ask who you like, hn. I'm getting as many of the Akatsuki as I can."

"You're being way over the top about this!" I stood up too so that I was in a better position for disagreeing with him, "Seriously, what are you expecting to happen?"

"I'm hoping nothing will happen," Deidara's voice was tense, "I'm trying to avoid anything happening."

"The best way of doing that is surely to avoid provoking her?"

"No, the best way of doing that is to persuade her that it's not worth picking a fight. How many fights have you been in in your life, hm? What sort of experience are you talking from?"

"None, but I do know marginally more about Kin than you do!"

"Not that much, as you keep saying, and you don't know her friends. Anyway, there's no point in having this discussion. I've told you the plan."

Deidara turned to leave and I grabbed his wrist, not wanting him to go without admitting that I was right and we should do it my way, but when I pulled him back round to face me I saw that I'd somehow gone too far.

I was still learning the boundaries.

Deidara turned my grip round viciously so that he was holding my arm and leaned in close.

"I have told you. The plan. Yeah. Like it or not, I will be bringing the Akatsuki on Wednesday."

"Well I like it _not_, and I won't tell you exactly where we're meeting unless you agree on a maximum of three people."

What happened next happened fast, but I'll try to break it down. First Deidara went very still, then after a tiny fraction of a second he lifted his hand, intention clear. I got in there first, taking advantage of my newly freed left hand to slap him across the face. Even while doing it I wondered how he'd react, but I wasn't about to stand by and let him hit me.

It can't have hurt him that much, it was my left hand after all, but when his head snapped to the side it stayed there for a while. The hand that had been up in the air he brought down to cover his eyes and he stood like that until I spoke.

"Were you actually going to hit me?"

He didn't look at me when he eventually answered, voice strained. "I don't know, hn."

"Well why don't you go and think about that, and I'll get dressed."

Deidara nodded and left, still without making eye contact, and as soon as he was gone I texted Kiba.

"What time are you coming?"

/\/\/\/\

"So that's twice he flipped in one morning," I finished off the story for Kiba, who was sitting opposite me on the bed. "Do you think that's a really bad sign?"

"Dunno," Kiba rubbed the side of his nose thoughtfully, "maybe it's because you let him totally run free last night. It could be that it takes him a while to pull himself back. Are you worried?"

I considered. "I'm not worried that he doesn't care about me, but I am now a little worried that he might hurt me by accident. And very worried that I'll have to avoid physical contact with him in order to be on the safe side."

"Sooo, basically you're worried that he's been right every time he's warned you to be careful and you've ignored him?"

"Whose side are you on?" I asked with a wounded look.

"Yours," Kiba assured me, "but being on your side doesn't, in this case, mean saying that your boyfriend's been an ass."

"Well what does it mean then?"

"It means being honest with you."

I nodded grimly. I'd expected this. "Go on, hit me with it. I'm braced."

"Deidara is a good guy. All he wants out of this Kin situation, which, by the way, you can count me in on, is to make sure you don't get hurt. I think his plan's a good one and I'm going to go thrash out the details with him as soon as I'm done giving you a much needed dose of truth."

"Fine," I grumbled, "you go buddy up with him then. See if I care."

"I'm not finished yet," Kiba softened his firm tone with an affectionate grin, "look, you know he has an issue with this other side of himself or whatever it is that's going on. Last night from what you've said you were fine with it, and you could forgive him for that little blip first thing this morning, but whoa! As soon as he raises a hand to you that's it?"

"I never said that was _it_."

"Okay, but you are freaking out now where you weren't before. Is it because of Sakura? You don't want to end up like her?"

"I told her to leave Sasuke because he was hitting her. If Deidara did the same to me and I stayed with him, what kind of a hypocrite would that make me? Does Deidara have any more reason to be like that than Sasuke did? How could I justify it?"

Kiba shrugged, "What I want to know is why does it matter what way he attacks you?"

"Sorry?"

"That time you told me about, when he went all funny on you outside that park?"

I remembered the street lights, the silence, his warm hands through the fabric of my school shirt, and blushed like Hinata. "It's different."

"GBH tends to get a shorter jail sentence than rape," Kiba said bluntly.

"Ouch. You don't pull your punches."

"I'm not saying I think you should stay with him whatever he does," he replied, ignoring my comment, "but I do think you should look at why you're reacting the way you are, and whether that's entirely fair."

"Fair?" I was stung by that, "I think it's perfectly fair to object when my boyfriend almost hits me. I don't think there's anything unfair about being bothered by that."

"That's true," Kiba conceded, "but think about it from his point of view. He doesn't want to hurt you, he doesn't even want to scare you, but sometimes he can't help himself. He's doing his best. Now, he's used to you being fairly understanding of this and you've shown him every time that you trust him anyway and you don't hold it against him. But suddenly his hold over himself slips in a different way, in a different situation, and you're not so understanding. In fact, you shut yourself in your room and don't even talk to him about it. Do you see where I'm coming from here?"

"Yes," I said reluctantly, "and I see your point. It's just... twice in one morning. And almost hitting me, that's harder for me to look past."

"But why?"

"Because I let him do the other stuff," I pointed out, "he had my permission, even if he wasn't asking for it. This is different."

"Because you don't like it."

"Well... yes. Kind of."

"I do see where you're coming from too," Kiba said, getting up off the bed, "it's just that I know for a fact that Deidara would never actually want to hit you. I knew that since seeing the way he looked at you while you were in the hospital. Now, I'm going to go talk to him. Because I like to get myself involved like that, and we need to talk about our strategy for the meeting with Kin. See you later."

I watched Kiba leave, wondering how much I agreed with him. I supposed, thinking about it, that I was guilty of a kind of inconsistency that wasn't entirely fair. I should really decide to either deal with Deidara's issues or not be with him at all.

Well that was easy then.

I loved him, craziness and all, and if nothing else that meant I'd forgive him for something he only almost did. If he actually did hit me I might have to think about taking more drastic measures, but for the moment at least he hadn't actually done anything that awful.

I leaned back against the wall, thinking about the fact that Deidara had lost it twice in, not only a morning, less than an hour. To be honest, that probably was something worth worrying about. Unless Kiba was right and it was just because I'd encouraged him to completely let go the night before. In which case, how long before he was back to normal? I glanced at the wall separating my room from Deidara's, semi-deliberately listening for a trace of his conversation with Kiba making it through. After a few minutes of completely failing to eavesdrop on the indistinct murmurs I stood up, figuring I may as well go downstairs for a drink. The boys would find me when they wanted me.

When Kiba eventually decided to come down I was drinking orange juice and halfheartedly turning the pages of a newspaper Pein had left in the living room.

"So," he said, standing in the doorway, "I'll meet you guys at the park at about ten to five and we can make our way to wherever you're meeting Kin."

"Is anybody giving me any say in this?" I asked sulkily.

"Nope," Kiba replied, "majority rules. Two out of the three of us like this plan better. Watcha reading?"

"Nothing," I put the newspaper to one side and patted the sofa next to me, "come sit."

He did, sitting down next to me with a grin. "How did it go yesterday, with Deidara and your dad?"

"Pretty well," I thought back, "although dad came into my room at a pretty bad moment which was hideously embarrassing. Oh, and he asked me if I wanted to live with him."

Kiba looked confused, "What, your dad did?"

"I'm already living with Deidara. Dad offered. I'm going to see his place on Tuesday."

"Did you say yes?"

"No," I leaned back on the arm of the sofa, "dad didn't make me give an answer. What do you think I should do?"

"I think you should definitely consider it. You'd need to talk to him about what his expectations would be if you lived with him, in terms of rules and boundaries and things. And didn't you say you found him really annoying?"

"Sometimes I do, sometimes I just think he's silly. And sometimes he does something so unexpectedly dad-like, and not even in an annoying overbearing parent way. Like he gave me a load of money yesterday. And I sort of think, apart from anything else, he's my dad isn't he? And this might be a really good chance to get to know him again."

"What if your mum decides she wants you back in her house?"

I snorted, "Oh yeah, that's likely."

"Seriously. I saw her on her way out when I passed your house and she was looking kind of the worse for wear. I don't think it's impossible that if you went back now she'd change her mind."

Just that last sentence stirred up so many different emotions that I couldn't even physically speak for a moment. I breathed slowly and deeply, trying to sort myself out a bit.

"Are you okay?" I nodded but Kiba looked unconvinced. "How do you feel about it?"

"Tough question. How do I feel? Mostly... angry. Not with you, don't worry. I'm still angry with her for kicking me out, and now if she's wavering... well screw her. I don't _want_ to live with her anymore."

Kiba's expression hadn't changed. "Are you sure about that?"

"No. Not at all," I closed my eyes, feeling my shoulders begin to shake as the first couple of tears slipped out, and Kiba shuffled up to put his arms around me.

"Why am I still like this?" I asked desperately, "Why can't I just be okay?"

"Are you kidding? You can't stop caring about someone or something just like that."

"She can."

"No she can't! That's what I'm telling you! Are you sure you don't want to give it another go with her? Because I think you could. I could even talk to her if you like-"

I shook my head violently, "No."

"Why not? You need to learn when to let go of that pride, Ino."

Kiba's voice was gentle, and I knew what he was saying and knew why it was right and also wrong. I did have pride issues, that was why I was reluctant to bring a load of people to meet Kin on Wednesday. But this wasn't about pride.

"We can't ever go back," as I spoke I remembered what Pein had said to me when he'd been driving me here that day. He'd been right, of course. "The effects of what I did by running away couldn't fully go away. We'd never be easy with each other. Any time she tried to lay down the law I'd threaten to leave. Every time I did something she didn't like she'd suggest I run off to my boyfriend's house. Even if we managed to avoid that, I can't go back to how I felt about her before."

I looked Kiba straight in the eyes, hoping to make him understand that this wasn't just about me being scared to go back. "I don't trust her to take care of me. I don't trust her to love me unconditionally, no matter what I do. And you know me, I'll always push things, it's just who I am. If I don't feel safe to do that, I won't be able to deal with living there."

There was a long silence after that, then Kiba sat back, scratching his head. "Okay."

That meant he got it, and although he wouldn't take the same route if he was in my shoes he knew that I didn't have any choice but to be me. It was about the best I was going to get, under the circumstances.

He stood up then, glancing at the clock hanging over the door. "I have to go," he stretched, "I'm meeting Hinata in a little while."

"How are things going with you two?"

"Really well actually," Kiba looked out of the window, a soft smile on his face, "she's great."

"You guys make a fantastic couple."

"I think so!" Kiba hugged me again, then headed out into the hallway to get his coat.

"Tell her I said hi," I called after him as he opened the door.

"I will. And you should go have a chat with your boyfriend!"

"Yeah, okay."

He closed the door behind him and I gave myself a couple of minutes before going upstairs and knocking at the door to Deidara's room.

"Come in, yeah."

He was listening to his ipod, sitting on the floor with his back against his bed.

I went into the middle of the room, kneeling down opposite him but a couple of feet away.

"I'm sorry," I said, keeping my eyes on the floor. "You gave me a fright earlier, but I shouldn't have retaliated by shutting you out."

"I would have hit you, hn."

I did look up at that, finding Deidara watching me with a pained expression, "And I wish that wasn't true but it is. I'm not going to lie, yeah."

"Alright," I said hesitantly, "well-"

"I don't know how to change the way I am," he said, a trace of bitterness entering his voice, "I can't stop myself, hn."

"I know," I moved forwards slowly, carefully, not wanting to look like a threat, "I know and I'm sorry. I don't think I took it seriously enough and I think I was probably doing more harm than good."

"Why should you have to worry about it? Why can't I just be normal, hm? Have a normal relationship?"

Boy did I recognize _that _feeling. Why can't I be stronger? Why can't I be better? Why can't I just do things right for once, rather than screwing everything up?

"Deidara," I whispered, feeling like a bitch for being so selfish, "I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have pushed you. I was unfair and this is not your fault."

"I bet Sakura said that too," he said unkindly. I brushed it off.

"You're not Sasuke."

Lifting one hand, I held it out towards him. Deidara looked at it like he wasn't sure what I was trying to achieve, but when he didn't push my hand away I laid it gently on his wrist.

"I don't want to be in that position again, yeah," he said roughly, "I think it might be-"

"Stop there," I interrupted in a low voice, "we're not breaking up. Not unless you don't want to be with me. I promise I won't do anything you're uncomfortable with. We can work on this a step at a time, find out how to help you, but I love you and I want to stay with you."

"What if I can't be helped? If I'm stuck like this, you still want to be with me, hm?"

"In a word, yes. If you'll let me."

I felt his arm move under my hand, and then he was interlacing his fingers with mine.

"Thank you, hn," he brought his other hand up to push my hair away from my face. "How long do you think it'll take for you to trust me again?"

"I already do," I said simply, "I'm just going to make things clear though. I'm going to stop pushing for physical contact. If you want to kiss me you're more than welcome, but I won't ask for it. That doesn't mean I don't trust you, it's because I want to take things at your pace for a while. My pace doesn't work."

"Okay."

"As for next time we argue, if you want to walk away I'll let you. And from now on I'd like you to try and tell me if something I do makes you start to slip. Just so I can start to figure it out."

"I'll see what I can do, yeah," he laughed humorlessly. "This is so dysfunctional."

"We'll be fine," I said with as much confidence as I could, "we'll just have to learn how it works and how to get around it."

Deidara pulled me closer, gently holding me to him. "I love you, hn."

"Snap," I smiled into the soft fabric of his t-shirt. "By the way, Kiba let me know that we were doing things your way with the whole Kin thing. So that's one conversation we don't need to worry about again."

"He's a smart person, he knew I was right, yeah."

"Don't go getting a big head," I moved backwards and Deidara let me go instantly. "Now, it's something like two o'clock and I haven't eaten. Shall we go find some lunch?"

"You just don't want to take food out of the cupboards without permission," he teased lightly, standing up. "Come on, hn. Let's go steal you some of Pein's food."


	47. Chapter 47

**_This one took a while to write, so I'm sorry about that, but it's here! As promised! Thank you so much to missmridvika, demon lilith and Nutella's Biggest Fan. We're nearing the end now... just two or three more chapters I think. It's all getting a bit tense... Hope you enjoy chapter 47!_**

**_Disclaimer:_**

**_I don't own Naruto. Suprise Sur-freakin'-prise._**

**Study In Contrasts_  
_**

Monday morning, you may be surprised to hear, saw Deidara and I waking up in the same bed again. This time it was actually even more innocent before – he'd been tired already when he came in to talk me to sleep, so he just lay down next to me and, I assumed, fell asleep soon after I did.

I was on the non-wall side of the bed, so I rolled out and scrabbled around the floor until I found my phone. Turning around to wake Deidara up I found him already starting to sit up, eyes half closed as he stretched.

"What's the time? Hn."

"Ten to seven. Sleep well?"

"I did actually."

I smiled, "You'd probably have been more comfortable in your room. These beds aren't exactly big."

"In theory, yeah. But I seem to sleep better next to you."

I frowned, "I didn't know you had trouble sleeping."

"I get to sleep fine," he got out of bed, kissing me on the cheek, "I just don't always stay asleep, hn."

"Well there you go. You learn something new every day."

"You know the great thing about being blond, hm?" I laughed, shaking my head. Nothing more amusing than a blond joke told by a blond, to a blond. "We can save time by learning the same new thing every day. Handy, right?"

We had slipped back into our regular rhythms of joking, teasing, laughing and chatting fairly quickly, although I did catch Deidara looking pensively at me sometimes. Like then, as I turned around from fishing a pair of tights out of one of my handy plastic boxes.

"You alright?"

He blinked, switching easily from thoughtful to light. "Just enjoying the view, yeah."

"Oh shut up," I rolled my eyes, "why don't you stop harassing me and go get ready for school. I need to wash my hair."

"Your wish is my command."

I watched him amble out, struck by a few thoughts at once. One was that if my dad knew we'd spent two consecutive nights sleeping in the same bed he'd never be persuaded that nothing had happened. Another was that it was actually kind of an unusual situation I had found myself in, in terms of living arrangements. And the last thought that ran through my head before I picked up a towel and went to the bathroom was how incredibly lucky I was to have such a gorgeous boyfriend.

I went downstairs once I was in my uniform, my hair still slightly damp, and found Deidara eating alone at the table.

"Where are Pein and Konan?" I put a couple of slices of bread in the toaster and turned around to see him shrug.

"Still asleep maybe, yeah. I'll drive us to school if Pein doesn't appear."

"I haven't really seen either of them all weekend."

"I think there's a loft conversion that you can get to from their room," he said, glancing up as if he could see it through the ceiling, "I've never actually been up there, but there's a skylight in the roof, you can see it from outside, hn, and none of the rooms go that high."

"The amateur detective strikes again," I mocked, spreading my toast.

"Put some toast in it," he retorted, trying not to smile. "We have to leave in fifteen minutes, yeah."

"What will you do with the car if you drive us?"

"Fold it up and put it in my pocket. Or maybe park it outside. Why, have you got another plan, hm?"

"I'm just thinking, what if Pein needs it? Shouldn't we take the bus?"

Deidara stood up, sighing wearily, "I'll go and ask him, shall I?"

"If you do I'll clear, wash, dry _and _put away today."

"Fine. I'll be back in a minute, hn."

I finished my toast quickly, washing up my plate and Deidara's bowl and leaving them for a moment to find the towel thing. Deidara reappeared as I was putting the last spoon away.

"He says it's fine. Now can we go? It's already half eight, yeah."

"Oh shit," I paled slightly and he frowned.

"We'll be fine, this is the time we normally leave."

"No, my first lesson today is sports. And I don't remember seeing my sports kit when I unpacked."

Deidara still looked mystified, "What's the big deal?"

"I'll have to wear nasty manky school stuff!"

"You're kidding, hn."

"No I'm not! This is a disaster! Hinata will probably be at school already now, this is such a crap start to the week-"

"Wait there," Deidara said, cutting me off. He went upstairs, returning a few moments later with a gray canvas bag. He chucked it to me and slipped his shoes on, grabbing the car keys off the counter. "Come on, or we'll be late, yeah."

/\/\/\/\

As Gai began leading us in a warm up that was more suited, in my honest opinion, to Olympic athletes than disinterested teenagers, I was feeling pretty good.

This was because rather than wearing gross school lost property leftover clothes, I was in a pair of Deidara's tracksuit trousers and one of his t-shirts. It probably wasn't a flattering look, it was all way too big for me and I'd actually had to roll up the trouser cuffs quite a lot to avoid tripping over them, but they smelled like him.

Then my mood increased even more as a familiar mop of pink hair appeared from inside the school building and made its way over to Gai.

"Sorry I'm late," Sakura said softly.

"Not a problem!" Gai responded with his usual enthusiasm, "Why don't you go stand with your usual partner."

She caught my eye and I offered a tentative grin. The smile that spread across her face wasn't quite the old Sakura, but it was a far cry from the meek, unhappy Sasuke's Sakura.

Once the warm up was over we were set to improving our blocks, so Sakura and I got to it.

"How have you been?" I asked after we'd taken a couple of turns.

"Not great," she said honestly, "but I'm recovering. I'm not looking forward to seeing him."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"No, not really. Maybe after a little while, but I don't want to dwell on it. It won't help," she launched a series of punches that I just about managed to a block, following it up with a surprise kick that sent me stumbling backwards.

"Nice," I gasped, winded.

Sakura let out a giggle, "Sorry. I'd like to hear what's been going on with you, if that's okay? How's Deidara?"

"Well, I'm wearing his clothes. That's a good sign, right?"

"I thought that outfit looked a little loose on you. Did you leave your sports stuff at home again?"

I smiled wryly. "Sakura, I have a lot of news for you."

It took the entire two hours of sports, plus break, to catch Sakura up on the recent dramatic events of my life. We stayed out of the common room, hoping to avoid Sasuke, and chatted in the girl's toilets, where I told her about Kin's attack, mum kicking me out, living with Deidara and Pein, dad inviting me to live with him, Deidara's strange temper issues and our plan to confront Kin on Wednesday.

"I can't believe how much I missed," she said, dazed.

"I know. Didn't Hinata tell you anything?"

"Well, I haven't really spoken to her all that much. We had a brief chat last night when she called me to check I hadn't been kidnapped or something, but we mostly talked about her and Kiba. Which, by the way, I thought was an interesting development."

"I helped set them up," I said with pride.

"Really? I was wondering if you'd be okay with them being together."

"It feels a bit weird," I admitted, "but I think they're good for each other."

Sakura nodded her agreement. "And while we're still on relationships, you and Deidara."

"Mmm?"

"I'm not about to say he's exactly like Sasuke was, if that's what you're worried about."

It was, kind of, but I wasn't going to say it out loud.

"I won't pretend I'm not concerned though," Sakura rubbed the side of her nose nervously, "I mean, it's not like one day someone who loves you will wake up and decide to knock you around a bit. It builds slowly, and you make allowances, and then one day your friends are telling you to get out and you just can't hear it..."

She trailed off with a distant look and I put a hand out, touching her arm lightly to bring her back to herself.

"What was it that eventually made you decide to leave him?" I asked, not sure I was going to get an answer.

Sakura's expression warmed, even if her smile was tinged with regret. "Naruto."

I raised my eyebrows, "Seriously?"

"Oh yes. He has this... way about him. He can be incredibly persuasive. Oh, and he told me he was in love with me."

Gaping at her, I waved a hand incoherently, trying to ask for more information.

"I couldn't go out with him, I knew I couldn't go straight from a relationship with Sasuke to a relationship with anyone. And I never have and never will see Naruto as anything but a close friend, which I had to tell him. He did manage to change my perspective though, and I left Sasuke that evening."

"Naruto is an odd one, isn't he?"

"In my experience," Sakura commented, "somebody that constantly cheerful is either stupid or has something they're hiding."

"And which is he?"

"The second. Have you ever heard him talk about his parents?"

I got a brief flashback of something I'd said about family that caused an awkward moment in the group, but couldn't remember the exact context. "No, I haven't. Why?"

Sakura eyed me gravely, "You can't tell anyone I told you this. Not that he'd mind as such, but still."

"I promise I'll keep my mouth shut."

"Well, when Naruto was very small, only about three years old I think, there was a power cut in his area and his parents lit a load of candles. They'd gone upstairs to find some more and Naruto, fascinated by the flames, reached up to a big one on the coffee table, trying to pull it closer for a better look."

I saw where this was going, and sat in morbidly fascinated silence as Sakura continued, hoping the ending wasn't as awful as a part of me thought it probably was.

"Of course, he accidentally pulled it off the table. The molten wax that had collected splashed all over the carpet and Naruto, wanting to avoid getting in trouble, ran out of the room and out to the garden. But the candle hadn't gone out when it fell. The fire spread quickly, and Naruto's parents were trapped inside. They died. Naruto was fostered to various family members, all of whom blamed him for the accident on some level, and even now I think he feels incredibly guilty."

"That's..."

"Tragic," Sakura agreed. "He's one of the sweetest people I know. Of course, he's also incredibly annoying and loud. He doesn't want people to look at him and see an orphan, which is why he's so hyperactive. And also it's probably an attention thing, since he was ignored a lot in his foster homes. I don't think he sees that though."

"Poor Naruto," even saying it I hated how inane it sounded.

"I know."

Sakura and I sat in respectful silence for a moment, then the bell rang. Sakura glanced up, suddenly nervous.

"What do you have next?" I asked.

"Drama... with Sasuke."

"Oh. What are you going to do, bunk?"

"No," she straightened up, determined. "I'm going to go."

We walked together until I had to split off, turning to give her a good luck hug. "It's really really good to have you back, Sakura."

She smiled as she pulled away. "It's nice to be back."

At lunch that day Sakura, Hinata and I ate at a separate table from the rest of the group. Hinata and I kept exchanging little glances of amazement at Sakura's recovery so far. She was eating properly, she was smiling and laughing, she was actually _there_. She did look over at the other table, and Sasuke, quite a lot, but never for any length of time.

"By the way," Sakura said during a lull in the conversation, "do you mind if I come with you on Wednesday?"

"To meet Kin?" I asked dubiously, "Why would you want to?"

"Because she's probably going to get badly owned in one way or another and I'd like to see it," Sakura replied wickedly.

"You're seeing Kin on Wednesday?"

Oh yeah, I'd forgotten to tell Hinata about that.

"Yes. Deidara's getting some of his Akatsuki friends to come because chances are she'll have her little gang there, Kiba said he'd come. I'm not sure we want too many people there, but nobody's listening to me, so," I shrugged.

"Um... can I come?"

I dropped my head onto the table with a groan, "Why?"

"Because you two will be there," Hinata's voice was unusually strong, "I don't want to be told about it later, I want to know what happens when it happens. And you never know, maybe I can be useful."

"Fine. Why don't we invite the entire school? That could be fun."

"Don't be daft," Sakura said briskly, "Hinata's right, we might be able to help."

"I know, it's just... I don't really want to take a freaking army in there with me. I think it just weakens my position and it'll make her want to get me even more."

"We can get round that, I'm sure," Sakura looked to Hinata, "any ideas?"

"Well, we need to make sure Ino doesn't look weak. That's what we're avoiding, right?" I nodded and Hinata continued, addressing me, "So first of all I think you will need to present yourself as being in charge of the group of us."

"That means," Sakura put in, "you walk in front and you do all the talking."

"I suspect that'll depend a little on who of the Akatsuki shows up," I said, thinking of trying to persuade Hidan to let me be the only one to speak.

"Yeah, well so long as you sort of look like you're in charge it shouldn't be an issue. But here's what I'm thinking," Sakura put her hands down on the table and leaned in, "you show up, followed by this group of mostly guys. Then you step forwards, away from their protection, to talk to Kin solo. That way you've made yourself vulnerable enough to show that you're not scared of her, but we're ready to leap in if it looks like you're struggling."

I sighed, "I guess that would look okay. I'm hoping to avoid you guys having to join in at all though."

"You should be fine so long as it's just you versus her," Sakura reassured me, "you've come on a lot in martial arts. We should only have to interfere if she brings in some friends to fight with her."

The bell rang, interrupting our conversation, and the three of us went our separate ways for our next lessons. I had art, and went in to find Deidara already sculpting at our usual table.

"You're early," I commented, sliding into the chair next to his.

"Or you're late?"

"No, this is definitely you."

He grinned, "Yeah, I'm early. I have good news."

"What's that then?"

"Virtually everyone has agreed to come on Wednesday, hn."

"Seriously?" I gaped at him, "How the hell did you manage that?"

"I explained the situation with the rival gang and a couple of people seemed keen to come for the chance of a fight. Namely Kisame and Hidan. Then Itachi pointed out that if we all went then we may not even have to fight, because they'd not want to go up against that many of us, and Sasori backed him up saying that that would probably be the most efficient way of dealing with the problem, yeah. So now they all want to come. Except Zetsu, but he doesn't really get involved in anything."

"Okay, well Sakura, Hinata and I came up with a plan of sorts at lunch."

I ran through the idea quickly and Deidara seemed to like it.

"We're having a meeting with Pein this afternoon to talk about it. You should suggest that plan, hn."

"Isn't it, like, an Akatsuki meeting? I don't think that includes me. You can tell them about it and see what they think."

"You're basically Akatsuki now," Deidara said with a grin, "much as that may bother you, yeah."

"I don't mind," I laughed, "I just don't know whether the other guys would agree with you."

"They do, hn. Sasori asked me to make sure you were there at the meeting."

"Oh," I felt strangely touched by that, "well yeah, sure I'll be there."

"Good."

Deidara turned back to his sculpture with a pleased look on his face, and I got my own pictures out. We didn't talk much during the lesson, Deidara never talked much when he was into his art, but every so often our arms would brush and we'd both smile, not even needing to look at each other.

The lesson seemed to pass quickly, Deidara and I leaving the school building together and finding Sasori, Hidan and Kakuzu waiting by the car.

"Hey Sasori, hn. What are you two doing here?"

"You think I'm taking the bus while you fuck off in the car?" Hidan snorted, "If you can give Sasori a lift you can sure as hell give me one too."

"I'm not paying for a bus ticket," Kakuzu added, "it's not like it's your car."

"Fine, whatever, yeah," Deidara rolled his eyes at me and unlocked the car.

"Can I drive?" Hidan asked.

"No."

"What the hell? I passed that dumb ass test didn't I?"

"Actually, you didn't," Kakuzu retorted, opening the door, "you thought you had because you managed not to hit anyone, but in fact you failed."

"Who the fuck cares? I've got a provisional license-"

"Shut up and get in the back," Sasori said, gritting his teeth almost imperceptibly.

Seeing Hidan give up on the possibility of driving I rushed round and scrambled into the passenger seat, knowing that would be his next target.

Sure enough, "And now I have to sit in the back with the other retards?" Kakuzu shoved him violently and Hidan almost fell into the car with an undignified yelp.

Deidara got into the driver's seat, trying to ignore the squabbling going on in the back.

"They're like six year old kids, hn," he muttered to me, reversing out of the parking space.

"I heard that!" Hidan yelled, causing me to wince slightly at the volume.

"I hoped you would, yeah! Stupid loudmouth!"

"Pansy-ass blond!"

"Waste of space!"

"Dense shit!"

"Grow up," Kakuzu growled, "you're both halfwits, why bother competing over it?"

"If you want to be walking to Pein's then keep it up Kakuzu, hn," Deidara ground out, jaw clenched.

There was a brief silence in the car, then Hidan started a low-level grumbling about it being too cold in the back of the car, which the rest of us proceeded to completely ignore.

When we eventually pulled up outside Pein's house I thought it was a minor miracle we were all still alive. Deidara locked the car and let us in, and I watched as Hidan sprawled out over the sofa, not even taking his shoes off to prop his feet up on the arm.

Kakuzu went through to the kitchen to get a drink, leaving Deidara, Sasori and I hovering awkwardly in the hallway. I voiced what the other two were thinking, "Comfortable though the living room is, I don't think I can put up with Hidan for another second without doing something that will land me in jail."

"Seconded," Sasori agreed, "Shall we wait upstairs for the others to get back?"

"Absolutely, yeah."

We passed Pein on the upstairs landing and he offered us a short nod before going down, I guessed to wait with Hidan and Kakuzu. In the meantime Deidara led the way to his room and we sat on the floor, taking the opportunity to brief Sasori on our proposed plan for Wednesday. He even managed to come up with a couple of points that I could add in while explaining it to make it look a little more rounded.

It only took another fifteen minutes or so for the rest of the Akatsuki arrived, then we all had to gather in the living room. I was wondering how we were all going to fit, as it happened we didn't really. Hidan, Kakuzu and Zetsu sat on the sofa, Pein sat on the chair with Konan standing beside him, Itachi stood by the window, Kisame leaned against the wall and Tobi shuffled around by the door.

I went and sat on the floor near the sofa and Deidara and Sasori followed suit. Once we were all there Pein leaned forward a little.

"My understanding of the situation so far is this: a small group of teenagers encouraged by Orochimaru have set themselves up as rivals of ours. A member of this group, Kin, has a particularly personal reason for targeting one of us, which may have contributed to their persistence even after Orochimaru stopped urging them on. Now a meeting has been set up for Wednesday and most of you are intending to go."

A murmur of agreement ran round the group and Pein nodded. "I do not want the Akatsuki to become associated with petty gang violence. Is there a suitably out of the way location for this meeting to avoid attracting unnecessary attention?"

"Yes there is," Sasori supplied, "a forested area unpopular as a walking route."

"Good. And is there anything resembling a plan of action yet?"

"Yes, hn," Deidara nudged me in the side and I sat up a little straighter.

"Oh, um, yeah," I flushed, knowing I sounded totally brain-dead, "that is, I, well, me and a couple of friends came up with an idea."

Pein lifted a single eyebrow, inviting me to continue. I took a deep breath, surprised by how nervous I was to be suggesting to these guys, all older than me may I add, what we should be doing.

"There are two aspects to this," I started, "there's the fact that they're challenging you as a group, and there's the fact that Kin's challenging me as an individual. This meeting on Wednesday is based on the second of those, but it will probably be the perfect chance to squash the first one too."

"If the meeting is primarily between you and Kin," Itachi asked evenly, "how do you know the rest of the group will be there?"

It was a good point. "Well, I can't be 100% positive. But she advised me to bring a friend with me, and she won't want to fight one against two, so now she's said that she'll need to bring at least one of the group. And Kin doesn't do things by half measures."

Itachi nodded, seeming to file that away for future thought, and Hidan yawned from across the room.

"Great. I'm very happy. Now can you hurry up and explain this idea?"

"Er, right. Well I'm thinking that I basically lead you guys in to the meeting point. You stay pretty much in the background while I talk to Kin, that way you don't start anything. Hopefully her bunch of friends won't want to take you guys on because of your numbers, but if they do attack you can just thrash them and we can all leave."

I finished, praying that it had made sense and I hadn't looked like a complete moron.

Pein considered the plan for a few seconds, "So essentially you want the Akatsuki to stay back and stay quiet until forced to act otherwise by Kin's gang?"

I nodded.

"Screw that!" Hidan said, "I'm not sitting around like some kind of-"

"Does anybody else want to raise an objection to the plan?" Pein asked, cutting through Hidan's whinging. There was silence. "Then we stick with this. Ino, anything else to add?"

"Not really," I bit my lip, trying to think, "we'll meet at the park, the playground bit, at about ten to five. I think that's everything."

Pein stood and left, heading upstairs with Konan following silently. Once they'd left people started talking again and Deidara turned to me with a grin.

"Nicely said, yeah."

"You did well," Sasori added, "you spoke very clearly."

"Thanks," I closed my eyes, "I'm kind of surprised Pein went for it, but I'm glad."

"It works out well for us," Sasori explained, "it means we hopefully get these children off our backs without having to put ourselves in the wrong."

"That's what makes it so fucking boring," Hidan bemoaned, having come up and sat down in between me and Sasori. "I want to kick the shit out of somebody."

"You might still get the chance to do that," I offered, "the girl who spoke to me on Kiba's phone sounded pretty confident of her group's ability to take you guys down."

"Well, we'll see about that," Hidan smirked and cracked his knuckles menacingly.

People started to stand up, moving towards the door, and Sasori ran a hand through his short red hair. "Deidara, I think I might stay here tonight."

"No problem, yeah. Konan took the other bed down but I think it's just under mine still."

"Wait," Hidan objected, "I was going to stay. I can't be assed to trek all the way home."

"Tough shit, hn."

"Why can't he stay too?" I asked, confused.

"Only three beds," Sasori revealed, not looking particularly disappointed.

"Well," I hesitated.

"Go on, got another genius idea?" Hidan's question was a strange combination of sarcasm and curiosity.

"I was going to say that Deidara, you could just stay in my room."

Hidan's eyes widened, then he leered at us both. "Wow, who'd have thought it."

"Shut up Hidan, yeah," Deidara hit him once over the head and turned to me, "You don't mind?"

"Of course not."

"It's settled then," Sasori said wearily, "let's go and put the other bed up."

The three of us went upstairs again, leaving Hidan still sniggering in the living room, and I watched as Deidara and Sasori made short work of pulling the foldaway bed out and fixing it up.

"You know," Deidara commented to me as he tucked a sheet over the mattress, "you've probably given Hidan ammunition against us for the next, I don't know, hundred thousand years or so, hn."

"Hopefully none of us will be around that long. But I am sorry about that."

"It's fine. Hidan will always be annoying, whether he has a reason to be or not. I just thought I'd better warn you, yeah."

"I'll bear it in mind."

Sasori dumped a duvet on the bed and stood back to look over it, then nodded to us and left the room. Deidara stretched, then held out a hand to me. When I took it he pulled me close, putting his arms around me and resting his forehead on mine.

We just stood there like that for a little while, enjoying just being close, then he kissed me gently on the lips before stepping backwards. "What would you say to going downstairs and foraging for something to eat, hm?"

"I'd say... only if you do the foraging."

Deidara chuckled, "You worry about some odd things. Come on then, I'm starving, yeah."


	48. Chapter 48

_**That's right, it's that time again. Massive thank-you to demon lilith, STRAWBERRY ICE XD and Nutella's Biggest Fan for the reviews, we are SO CLOSE now to the end of the story. I think the next chapter is, in fact, for all intents and purposes the last one, which will be followed by an epilogue. I'll probably upload them pretty much at the same time, I've already got them both outlined so it shouldn't be long. Anyway, no point thinking too far ahead, there's still this chapter to go first! Hope you enjoy **_**^_^**_**  
**_

_**Warning: Hidan ahead. Beware of bad language.**_

_**Disclaimer:**_

_**Believe it or not... Still don't own Naruto.**_

**Study In Contrasts**_**  
**_

Breakfast the next morning was chaos. Actually, scrap that, chaos is a mild word for what it was. And it was all Hidan's fault. Naturally.

"Hey, lovebirds," he'd said with a smirk when Deidara and I came into the kitchen. "Y'know, you guys were very quiet last night. Ino, is Goldilocks just not that impressive?"

"Hidan," Sasori said, a note of warning clear in his voice.

"I'm just kind of surprised," Hidan swung back nonchalantly on his chair, still talking to me, "you look like you'd be a screamer, so he must not be doing it right."

"Hidan," I said sharply, not quite daring to look at Deidara to check his reaction.

"I know how we can find out though," was he really oblivious to the rising tide of killing intent? He leered across the table at me. "Why don't you spend tonight with me? I'll show you how it's supposed to-"

It was a wonder he'd got so far really. I winced as Deidara let out an incoherent yell and launched himself across the room, getting around the table and grabbing Hidan by his shirt collar.

"For once in your life shut your disgusting mouth," he snarled, taking Hidan's head in his left hand and slamming it viciously onto the table. Deliberately or not he hit the bowl Hidan had been eating from moments before, smashing it and sending milk and Honey Loops all over the table.

"You fucking psychopath!" Hidan exclaimed, and when Deidara yanked his head back up I could see that he was actually bleeding. Deidara was still holding on though, shaking him roughly by the hair at the back of his neck.

"I've had enough of filthy comments from you, hn," he drew back a fist and punched Hidan full in the face, letting go with his other hand so that the taller boy fell backwards, smashing into the counter and knocking several pots and pans of their hooks and onto the floor. Sasori was watching all this with vague disapproval, clearly not intending to intervene, so I took it upon myself to run forward, catching Deidara by the wrist as he moved towards Hidan, who was groaning in a heap on the floor.

"Deidara, look at me," he turned around and I gently placed a hand on each of his shoulders. I was improvising. "It's okay. You're okay."

"I'm fucking not!" Hidan staggered to his feet, holding a hand to his head and looking horrified when it came away covered in blood, "Holy shit! Look at what he did!"

I turned my attention back to Deidara, looking in his eyes for a sign of how much he'd regained control. He seemed to be struggling, a disproportionate amount of anger still flickering in his irises.

"Why isn't anybody more worried about me? Shouldn't we be going to the hospital or something now?"

Sasori sighed, putting his bowl in the sink for a moment, "Hidan, I'm sorry to say you're just not a priority right now. Go and call an ambulance yourself if you're that concerned."

In the meantime I was still wracking my brains for something that would help Deidara. I didn't want to be too forward in case that made him worse, but I didn't want to just back off and leave him alone in case he felt rejected. In the end I sort of compromised.

"Tell me what to do. How can I help you?"

Just asking the question appeared to make a difference. His breathing slowed slightly, his tensed muscles relaxed and his eyes began to clear.

"Is Hidan dying, hm?"

"Unfortunately not."

"I think I might be," Hidan pointed dramatically to his forehead, "I could have brain damage and none of you give a shit."

"Oh for Kami's sake," I turned around and peered at the blood, "Hidan, I've seen paper cuts bigger than that. Don't be such a baby."

"What?" he felt his own head, "Bullshit. This much blood? He must have cracked my skull open or something."

"Head injuries bleed a lot," Sasori commented, "you probably just got hit with a shard of the bowl."

"None of you know what you're talking about," Hidan said sulkily, "I'm going upstairs to get Pein to call the school. I'm not going in like this."

"No need to go all the way upstairs," came an unusually cold voice from the doorway. Pein was surveying the mess that was his kitchen with a decidedly unfriendly look on his face.

"Shit, sorry Pein, yeah," Deidara was looking a little pale, "Hidan kind of crossed a line and I lost it a bit-"

"I don't really want to hear the whys. I want my kitchen cleaned up before any of you go anywhere," he left us a moment to protest if we wanted to, which we didn't, and then turned and went into the living room.

"I crossed a line?" Hidan sounded incredulous, "You smashed a _bowl _with my _face_. Who crossed a fucking line there?"

"Stop squabbling and help out," I snapped, tossing a dish cloth at Hidan.

"But I'm still bleeding!"

"Sucks to be you."

Hidan scowled at me, "You'd make a shit nurse. You're the least sympathetic girl I've met in my life."

Despite his whining Hidan did mop up the spillage on the table while I picked up the broken bowl and the cooking stuff that Hidan had sent flying. Sasori cleaned up the bowls and Deidara put them away after picking up a couple of chairs that had fallen over at some point in the fray. Eventually we had returned the room to pretty much its usual state, although there were probably some bowl shards still around and there was a nasty gouge out of the table that hadn't been there before.

Hidan vanished upstairs to wash the blood off his face and out of his hair while the rest of us waited reluctantly by the front door.

"Why can't we just go, hm? We're already late."

"Hidan can take the bus, surely."

I shook my head resolutely. "He's an idiot, but it wouldn't really be fair to just leave him to make his own way in."

Of course, he wasn't even slightly grateful for the effort we'd made, reappearing looking typically grumpy. I looked in satisfaction at the virtually non-existent mark on his head.

"See? Told you it was tiny."

"If I wanted your opinion I'd ask for it, bitch."

"I'm going to take that as a thank you."

The drive to school was tense but at least it was mostly quiet, Hidan not really wanting to provoke another episode of fury from Deidara. We were almost half an hour late for our first lessons, but Deidara and I had art and Kakashi really didn't seem to care so that wasn't too bad.

"Are you feeling better?" I asked once we'd sat down.

"Much better, thanks. Sorry, I tried to just not say anything, but when he suggested you spend the night with him, yeah," even remembering it made Deidara's eyes narrow slightly.

"He was just trying to wind you up," I said, smiling when Deidara chuckled dryly.

"Well he managed that, hn."

"I hope he enjoyed the feeling of satisfaction while it lasted."

Happy that Deidara wasn't dwelling too much on the rocky start to the day I immersed myself in sketching and let the hour and a half pass me by.

Chemistry was more fun than it had been in weeks. Sakura was animated and chatty, wanting to hear all about the breakfast incident once I'd vaguely referred to it once. I got as far as Hidan's comments before she stopped me.

"Wait, you guys slept in the same room? You and Deidara?"

"Same bed, even."

"Ino, seriously? You guys haven't been dating _that_ long."

"Oh, no. We're not sleeping together. We just sleep... together."

Sakura still looked dubious and I sighed, unwillingly irritated, "Sorry, but I don't actually need your approval here. You missed a lot of relationship development between me and him. I know where we are and that's enough for me."

She bowed her head apologetically, "I didn't mean to annoy you. It's just... I know I was a crappy friend for a while. Totally caught up in my own world. No, not my own world," she corrected herself, "I was totally caught up in Sasuke's world. I just want to catch up with you again. I want to make up for not being here."

"Can I ask you a question?"

"Go ahead."

"Were you genuinely unable to see how awful he was to you?"

Sakura flinched at the question, recovering quickly to look at me frankly, "Yes. Obviously a part of me knew, but," she glanced away, then back. "Look. This is the way it worked. I'd had a crush on him since, well, since you and I were friends. We studied for the SAT exams together quite a lot, at his house or mine, and became closer. I started to be able to read him and he stopped shutting me out so much. We talked about how much he missed his parents, and how he hated Itachi for pulling away from him after their death when he badly needed somebody to cling to. He had such a miserable past, and he felt so alone Ino. It broke my heart."

She smiled sadly, "We got together just before the summer holidays. I didn't think I could ever be happier. Before we were back at school he'd told me he loved me, and I thought I was complete. I had, after all, loved him for years. The relationship was fine, he struggled a bit with displaying emotion but he was doing his best. He was protective. Sometimes he'd get angry when other guys in school talked to me, but he was never mad at me. He told me, in that detached voice of his, that he wasn't going to let anybody take me away from him. It was the most romantic thing I'd ever heard. After a year things started to shift, not that I noticed it at the time. He'd direct his anger at me sometimes, or get strangely moody and stop talking to me for hours, days, even a week once, just because I'd make plans with friends without telling him about them."

Sakura's voice turned self-mocking then, "I made allowances. I reminded myself what a personal disaster he'd been through when he was younger and said that I'd be happy to make compromises. I told him every time I met up with a friend, even just for coffee. The next step was permission. He wouldn't let me go out sometimes, saying that he wanted to spend the time with me instead. And I always canceled for him, because he'd only do it once a month, and how selfish would I have to be to deny him that? Towards the end of year eleven he hit me for the first time. As soon as he'd done it he apologized, begged me not to leave him, and I promised I never would. It was just because I'd spent twenty minutes talking to Itachi at his house while I waited for him to get home from somewhere. And then we come to year twelve, and your arrival on the scene. By that time he was hitting me more often, sometimes up to once a week, and he wasn't letting me meet up with friends as often. Something in you made him nervous though, and he stepped up his protectiveness almost as soon as we started to become friends again."

She sighed, "But I just didn't see it like that. It didn't happen quickly, it built up over the course of a couple of years. In my head he still only hit me very infrequently, and mostly let me out to see my friends when I wanted to. And in my head it was all perfectly justified, because he was seriously disturbed by the loss of his family and I was one of the few people he felt he could talk to about it. And Ino, I loved him with all of my heart. And still do, to a certain extent. So no, I didn't see how awful he was, because I didn't think he was awful at all."

"I suppose I can kind of see how that would happen," I said softly, inadvertently thinking of the allowances I'd made for Deidara already. Not that that was the same. At all.

"Yeah, well," she shrugged briskly, "I got out of it. Not everyone who ends up like that does. I was lucky to have friends like you, Hinata and Naruto who stuck by me, even when I told you all to go to hell. So thank you for that. I owe you."

"It's fine. You'd do the same for me."

"Yes, I would," she suddenly looked very serious, "now, before my sob story you were telling me about what happened this morning?"

I was a little reluctant to pick up the story to be honest, worried about what she might read into it, but I'd started so I had to finish. Sakura, luckily, seemed to find it more amusing than anything else, and just as I was describing the clean-up operation my phone buzzed.

"Hello, just wondering what time you finish school today?

-Dad"

I replied under the desk to let him know to pick me up at four outside the building, and for the rest of the chemistry lesson Sakura tried to explain to me the difference between sigma bonds and pi bonds in atoms.

When the end of the day did actually roll around I waited outside the school gate with Deidara, snuggled up to his side with his arm over my shoulders as we tried to keep warm despite the light and freezing rain that was falling.

"Remind me why we're not waiting in the car?"

Deidara laughed, "Pein came by and got it, hn. I think he needed to get somewhere. I'm taking the bus back today."

"Oh. Sorry."

"Yeah, I was blaming you for Pein's day plans. And the weather. So thanks for apologizing."

Almost ten minutes past four dad pulled up in front of us.

"I'm so sorry I'm late," he said out of the window. "Oh, hey Deidara. Need a lift?"

"No thanks Mr Yamanaka, yeah," Deidara kissed me quickly but firmly on the lips, "see you later Ino," then he ambled off towards the bus stop.

I ran round the car, getting into the passenger seat and relishing the feeling of warm air blasting out of the heater.

"What have you been up to?" Dad asked as he drove off, fingers tapping on the steering wheel.

"Quite a bit actually. Setting up a dramatic meeting between two rival gangs, listening to the true story of a victim of abuse within a relationship, failing advanced chemistry. Busy, busy, busy."

"Right, and what have you actually been up to?"

"All of it except the chemistry bit. I'm actually doing quite well at the moment."

Dad looked impressed, "Seriously? You really do lead an eventful life. I was so much more boring at your age."

I snorted, "It's not exactly fun. I'm understandably concerned that I'm going to get my skull smashed in by the same bitch who tried to do it once before, and the victim of abuse is one of my best friends who's just dumped the boyfriend who's been behaving like a shit for years now. So it's all a little stressful."

"Fair enough. Want to tell me more about it?"

"Um, yes. I do."

"Great," dad looked pleasantly surprised by my answer, "tell me about the gang-bitch."

By the time we got to the flat I'd managed to fill in all the gaps in his knowledge about the Kin situation, bringing him fully up to speed with recent developments.

We got out of the car and I looked up at the block of flats, trying to guess which one was dad's. The building itself was nondescript, slightly grungy brown brick with contrastingly nice windows that looked like they'd been replaced recently. Dad led the way indoors and up the first flight of stairs, stopping at the door on the right hand side.

The door swung open silently and I stepped into my father's home.

The front door opened into a living room, with a sofa and TV and not much else. The floor was laminate wood, cheap and plastic looking, and the walls were all in off-white. I kind of liked it though, finding the simplicity bizarrely pleasing. There were two doors off that room, dad took me through the one on the right side of the room first.

This led to a cramped kitchen with the same floor and walls, a table and chairs to one side. From that room there were another two doors, one leading to a bathroom and the other to the master bedroom.

I shook my head at the strange layout, "Whoever designed this flat must have been high. Who wants to go from the shower to the kitchen?"

Dad shrugged, "Maybe the rooms used to be different but the guy who had the place before me decided to experiment."

"Maybe so. And I take it that the other door from the living room leads to the spare bedroom?"

"That would be correct. Want to see?"

I nodded and he took me back through, opening the door slowly.

The room was small, a chest of drawers and single bed took up most of the space easily, but the longest wall was the back of the flat and as such had three large windows built in. Dark purple curtains, clearly new, hung at either end of the wall-length curtain pole. The bed had a lilac duvet on it with a throw over the foot that matched the curtains. My foot nudged at the plushy white rug that covered a small area of floor by the bed and I turned to dad, standing in the doorway with a sheepish expression.

"I don't even know if you like purple," he confessed, "but you always used to. I'm not trying to pressure you, but I wanted you to feel at home if you ever spent the night here."

"Thank you," I said faintly, struck by a weird feeling.

"Are you alright?"

"Yes... I'm fine. Could I have a glass of water or something?"

"Of course, come on back to the kitchen."

We sat down at the kitchen table chatted while I had a drink, then I put the glass down firmly and changed my tone to businesslike.

"I'm not committing to anything," I said first, wanting to make sure he was absolutely clear on this. "I'm not even saying I'm thinking seriously about living here, but before I consider it as a possibility we need to have a chat about what that would mean, practically speaking."

"Okay," he seemed fine with the idea, "what do you want to know about?"

"Do you know how I'd get to school?"

"There's a bus stop, it's a five minute walk away, that takes you to another bus stop just around the corner from Konoha High. I reckon the journey will take around forty minutes. Maybe a little longer if the traffic's bad."

Impressive, it sounded like he'd done his research.

"Would you pay for my second year at Konoha High's sixth form? Would you even be able to?"

He scrunched up his face, "I'm not sure. But we can apply to the school for financial aid, maybe we can get a bursary or something that makes it easier, and I'll see what I can do."

So far, so good.

"And what about rules?"

"I hadn't thought about it. I guess we'd decide that together in the event of you moving in. I mean, you're clearly capable of looking after yourself fairly well. For the most part I'll let you do, within reason, whatever you like. So long as you don't wake me up by coming home and being ridiculously loud at two in the morning or anything like that."

All very intriguing.

I checked the time on my phone, "I think I have to go. I have stuff to do on the way back to Pein's."

"Okay," dad stood up, "I'll drive you."

"You don't have to. I need to go to mum's."

"Well I can drive you there, easy peasy. Come on, let me? I don't get the chance to do much dad-stuff for you."

I laughed, "If you insist."

It was a very short drive to mum's, just five minutes or so, and as dad pulled up outside I turned in my seat to face him.

"Thank you for having me," I said, the words sounding oddly formal coming out of my mouth.

"Thank you for coming."

He held out his arms and I hugged him awkwardly in the limited space.

"And thanks for the lift," I said as I got out.

"Ino?"

I paused, hand ready to close the door. "Yeah?"

"Can you just tell me if you liked it?"

And there was that weird feeling again, the same one the room had given me.

"Yes. I did like it."

Then I closed the car door behind me and went up to knock at mum's.

She opened the door quickly, eyes widening when she saw me.

"Ino..."

"Hi. Just wondering if you have my sports kit anywhere in there, since I didn't see it when I unpacked."

"Oh. No, I don't think so."

"Okay, no worries," I stepped backwards.

"Wait, do you want to come in? Just for a minute?"

I thought about it for all of three seconds.

"Sure."

We sat at the table in the kitchen and mum got a coke out of the fridge for me.

"How have you been?"

I shrugged, "Busy. My grades slipped a little so I've spent this week trying to sort that out. You?"

"I've been fine. How's Deidara?"

Without permission, my face twisted into a mild scowl. "I don't think you have any right to ask how he is after last time we were here."

"No. Of course. I apologize."

Sipping my coke in silence for a minute, I glanced around the room. It was the most bizarre thing, unlike the last time I was there it didn't feel at all like it was mine anymore. It was still familiar to me, but I didn't feel like it was calling to me.

"Look, mum, I appreciate you inviting me in like this, but why?"

"Because I wanted to say I was sorry for being so unreasonable before. And I wanted to ask you to come back home."

A part of me had seen that coming, but it still hit me like a hammer blow. One of my hands moved instinctively to my chest, as if I could protect myself from pain by just putting up a barrier in front of my heart. Stupid thought, really. Mum was looking down at the table, nervously massaging her left hand with her right one.

"Mum... I don't know what to say."

Her eyes lifted slowly to meet mine, "You shouldn't be living away from home. You're only sixteen, you're not ready to be on your own."

That stung at my pride a little, but I tried to ignore it. Just like I tried to ignore the feeling of wrongness every time she said the word 'home'.

"I'm doing fine, actually."

"You just said your grades had slipped."

"Yeah," I said slowly, "but I think that might have had something to do with feeling completely rejected by the one person in the world who had always said she would never be able to stop loving me."

"I didn't stop loving you Ino, not for a single moment."

"Tell me how you think I'm living right now," I challenged her, "Tell me what you picture when you think of where I'm staying."

"Why?"

"I'm curious."

"Well I don't know," she said uncertainly, "I suppose I think you must be... sleeping on someone's sofa? Or-"

"In Deidara's bed?"

She looked alarmed for a moment, "I don't think-"

"What if I was? What if I told you that I am? Would you think less of me?"

"I would think... your life is your own. It's up to you," she said carefully, after a second's thought.

I let out a breathless gasp of laughter, "You know what's hilarious? You're trying to be all tolerant and understanding, when I know you probably find the idea intensely disturbing, and there's not even anything for you to actually worry about!"

Mum let out a gentle sigh of relief, "So you're not...?"

"Oh, I am sharing a bed with Deidara at the moment. But that's because we both sleep better like that. We're not having sex," I spat the word at her, "because we don't need to, not to feel close. We trust each other. I think I even love him, and he's looked after me through all of this shit."

I could see it in her eyes, she knew the conversation had completely abandoned all pretense at civility and she was rapidly losing any chance she thought she might have of persuading me to stay.

"I'm sorry, Ino, I never meant to imply that I thought you were sleeping with him."

"But you did! When you said whatever it was you said about being my father's daughter, that's exactly what you were implying."

"Can you ever forgive me?"

For a moment, seeing the desperation in her eyes, I almost wavered. Then I remembered how I'd put myself on the line to beg for my place back, and the way she'd turned away from me.

"I'm too angry to even think about it right now," I stood up, "I can't see this place as home. Thanks for the coke though."

By the time I got back to Pein's it was coming on seven thirty and Deidara greeted me at the door with a tight hug. I hugged him back, breathing in his reassuring smell, and squeezed my eyes shut against the tears that had been threatening to make a break for it since I had left mum's.

Deidara spotted my distress instantly. "What happened? Did your dad say something, hm?"

"No, I just had a chat with mum. It's fine though, I don't really want to go into it right now."

He accepted this and sat with me while I ate some leftover tomato pasta. Then we went upstairs, sitting on my bed together. I leaned against his shoulder and he stroked my hair, and we didn't talk much.

"I was chatting with Sakura in chemistry today," I said after a while.

"Oh?"

"Yeah, we were talking about Sasuke. And how they got to the point they did."

I wasn't really sure why I was raising it, unless possibly to prove a point. If I could talk about it with him then maybe that meant I wasn't at risk or something.

Deidara's hand stilled on my hair and he took a deep breath in, "You're thinking about the parallels, right? And worrying about it?"

"Does that bother you?"

"Yes and no, yeah. Yes because I have the same thoughts sometimes, and the thought that I'm just going to end up like that bastard Uchiha makes me feel queasy. But also no, because if you're thinking about it then you're looking out for it, and hopefully that means you'll be able to tell me to get a grip before either of us get to that point," he resumed stroking my hair, "or, if I'm beyond help, you might be able to get away before I end up doing something stupid."

"This is the thing, I don't know if I would. The more nuts you go the more I want to stay with you and try to help. It's kind of perverse."

"And that's what happened with Sakura, hm?"

"Basically, something like that."

Neither of us said anything for a little while, but when Deidara did speak frustration was evident in his voice. Whether it was directed at himself or me was hard to say. "I can't make any promises, hn. I don't know what I'm going to do until I'm doing it."

"I know you can't, and I'm fine with it really. Just, I don't know. Worried."

"Yeah. Me too," he leaned over and pressed a kiss to the top of my head. "You should get into pajamas. I'll be back in a minute to tell you a story."

He got up and left, and by the time he was changed and back I was in bed.

"How about the story of the miniature elephant, yeah?"

"I like the sound of that. Here, come lie down."

Deidara sat on the edge of the bed. "I can't lie down, I'll just fall asleep, hn."

"That's fine," I smiled, "I think I'd miss you if I woke up and you weren't here."

He took a moment to judge whether or not I was just saying it to be nice, and when he saw I was completely genuine he got into the bed, kissing me chastely on the lips before starting the story.

"Once upon a time there was a teeny tiny elephant, yeah..."


	49. Chapter 49

_**Wow, talk about the end of an era... I've been on half term this week, and writing like mad, haha. So I am finally able to bring you *drumroll*... The final chapter of Study In Contrasts. Well, final-ish, since there's an epilogue which I'll probably upload this evening or something. Huge thanks to demon lilith and Nutella's Biggest Fan for the feedback, hope everyone enjoys the chapter!**_

_**Disclaimer:**_

_**I'm fully aware that I don't own Naruto. Never said I did.**_

**Study In Contrasts**_**  
**_

I was standing in the middle of a city and I wasn't sure why, or even how I'd got there in the first place, but I did know this much: somewhere around there mum was waiting for me. As I walked, searching for her, I noticed that the buildings were quite run down. In fact, more than that, positively ruined. It was like they hadn't been lived in for thousands of years, left to simply fall down.

It was worrying, but I didn't have time to think about it. Mum was going to be worried, I said I'd meet her ages ago, and I had to get a move on and find her. I was starting to really freak out, the sky was darkening and I knew somehow that it was only getting dark because I was looking for mum but I couldn't stop until I found her.

Then all of a sudden I rounded a corner and there she was, looking in disgust at a couple of pigeons sitting up on a rooftop. I called out to her and she turned around, seeming somehow surprised, as if she hadn't expected to find me there.

It didn't bother me though. Now that I'd found her I was expecting the weather to lighten up a bit, and at least I hadn't scared her too much. I stepped closer to her and the skies opened up all right, the sun didn't begin to come out but I was suddenly caught under the heaviest rain I'd ever encountered. I wanted to ask mum whether she was okay, if she knew somewhere we could take shelter, but I couldn't see her and when I called to her again and got no answer I realized she was gone.

The ruined city was flooding, the water level was already reaching my ankles, and I didn't know where I was going as I stumbled around the wrecked houses, tripping over tumbled bricks under the water. I don't know how far I got before I fell, splashing face-first into the water, now thigh-deep. I stood up again, cold, soaked to the skin, rain still falling violently, and wondered why I was even bothering.

I half collapsed against one of the few buildings still standing. I had given up. I would just wait here for the water to rise to over my head and then I'd drown and it would be over and I wouldn't have to walk anymore. And then I felt something wrap around my shoulders-

And I woke up, finding Deidara's arms around me.

"It's okay," he was whispering into my hair, "shh, it's okay."

"What happened?" My voice was thick and I guessed from the dampness of the pillowcase and my face that I'd been crying in my sleep.

"I don't know, yeah. You just started sobbing. I guessed it was a dream or something."

I snuggled closer to him, trying to eradicate the leftover feelings of hopelessness. "Sorry I woke you up."

"It's fine. Do you remember the dream? Sometimes it helps to talk about it, hn."

"I don't know," I said quietly, "It was about mum, and there was this really old city, and then it started to rain and the whole place was flooding. And I tried to get out but I was all on my own and eventually I just gave up and decided I'd rather drown."

Deidara hummed thoughtfully and one of his hands started to stroke soothing circles on my back. I pressed my ear to his chest, listening to the solidly reassuring sound of his heartbeat.

"What's the time?" I murmured.

"Around ten to five. I checked your phone, yeah."

"You know," I sighed, "I really have no idea what I would have done without you lately."

"Check the time yourself, probably."

"I mean generally."

"I know you do, hn."

I smiled into his chest, "Seriously though. It's been kind of crazy. And you're just... this amazing protective presence in my life. So I owe you."

"It works both ways," he replied, and I could tell by his voice that he was smiling too, "I don't worry about my parents when I'm with you, and I don't spend hours brooding over my issues because I'm too busy thinking about you. And do you have any idea how good it feels to think that I might somehow be helping you, hm?"

"You're definitely helping."

"Well there we go then."

"Love you."

"Love you too, yeah."

We lay in silence for a minute, neither of us really trying to fall asleep again.

"I'm a little worried about later," I said eventually, "you know, the Kin thing."

Deidara exhaled wearily and I felt rather than saw him bring a hand up to rub his eyes.

"We can't exactly do anything to change it at this point, hn. Whatever she does, we'll handle it."

I put my arms around him as well as I could given that we were both lying down. "Good point. It's just hard not to think about it."

"I know, yeah," he yawned on the 'yeah', stretching it out into several seconds.

"I think maybe we ought to try and get some more sleep."

Deidara chuckled softly, "Sounds like a good plan. Do you need me to come up with another story?"

I shook my head, "It's okay. Your heartbeat is pretty soothing."

He pulled me slightly closer, still sounding amused. "I'm glad to be of service, hn."

"Yeah, hhmmm," I was going to make a sarky comment about how rarely he must get to enjoy that feeling, but I just didn't have the energy. I was asleep within a couple of minutes, and this time the gentle th-thump of Deidara's heartbeat ran through my dreams like a protective spell, keeping the bad dreams at bay.

Waking up again at seven was unpleasant, to say the least. It was Wednesday, and that meant it was Kin-day. T minus ten hours and counting. I gently disentangled myself from Deidara's arms and got out of bed. First stop: the shower. By the time I was back in my room, bundled up in towels, Deidara had already gone back to his own bedroom to get dressed.

We were kind of subdued all day, not really needing to say anything to make it clear that we both had Kin on our minds. Unlike usual Deidara stayed around for lunch, sitting with Hinata, Sakura and me. The four of us became more animated then, particularly when Sakura showed an interest in Deidara's preferred style of art, but when the bell rang we all glanced at the clock accidentally, all pretending that we weren't thinking the exact same thing.

T minus three hours. And counting.

The rest of the Akatsuki had a weird kind of energy too, not quite excited, but energetic nonetheless. Hidan was even louder then usual when we met up outside of school after the last bell (T minus one hour), proclaiming to anyone who wasn't listening that he was hoping for some "really violent shit to go down".

"What's the plan?" I asked Deidara while we hovered by the gate watching the Akatsuki mill around. "Are we heading straight to the park? We'll be pretty early."

"I'm not sure, yeah," he flinched slightly as Kakuzu delivered a vicious karate chop to Hidan's back, prompting a string of swear words. "If we hang around in one place too long they'll just end up killing each other."

"Tension getting to them, huh?" Sakura asked, skipping up beside us.

"Something like that, hn."

"That boy looks like he might be getting hurt," Hinata said anxiously, watching Kakuzu throttling Hidan.

"He deserves it," Deidara replied, looking like he was enjoying the sight a little too much.

"You guys are supposed to be allies," I scolded, "why don't you go in and rescue him?"

"Hidan? You have to be kidding me. Why don't you do it, hm?"

I shrugged, "I'm finding it kind of amusing," I tilted my head sideways a little as Hidan made a spectacular comeback, throwing his friend off him and kicking him squarely in the side as he stumbled, "Besides, it's not like he's totally incapable of looking after himself."

"Hidan! Kakuzu!" Tsunade's voice rang across the courtyard from where she stood at her office window, "If you don't stop fighting this instant you'll be in here for the next three hours writing lines. Understood?"

They shuffled apart, muttering apologies, and Tsunade's window slammed shut with enough force to rattle the glass.

"That totally ruined my fun," I grumbled.

"She's probably hung over," Sakura commented, looking at the window with a kind of reluctantly fond expression on her face.

"That's not hard to guess. All she does in there is drink."

"Not entirely true," Sakura corrected me, "she also runs extra classes for people who are thinking of taking medicine. They're tough, but really interesting. She's a surprisingly good teacher."

"You want to take medicine?"

"I want to be a doctor," Sakura grinned, "you didn't know that?"

"I don't think I did," I tilted my head to look at her. "You'll make a good doctor though."

She grinned at that, blushing a tiny bit at the compliment, and then turned to Deidara to change the subject.

"Shouldn't we get everyone moving? If we hang around outside school we'll just attract the attention of more teachers."

"It's a good point, but I don't think I'm the one to talk to, hn. They won't listen to me."

"Who then?"

Deidara shot me a significant look and I frowned.

"Me?"

"Pein put you in charge for today."

"You really think they'll do what I say?"

"May as well try it, yeah."

Not sure it would work, but kind of hoping it would, I walked closer to the loosely bunched Akatsuki members.

"Uh, guys?" Okay, that was too quiet, no wonder they didn't even look at me. "People! Attention!" That was more like it. Everyone barring Hidan, who was busy having his face ground into the floor by Kakuzu's foot again, turned to look at me.

"We need to at least take this down the road, that way you can torture Hidan as much as you like and not risk getting in trouble. Besides," I did a quick mental calculation, "I think it'll take enough time to get to the park that we can definitely head off now without being early."

I hoped so at least, at this point if we had to hang around any longer I thought the tension might just kill me before I even got to see Kin. Would that be ironic?

After a couple of seconds of murmuring it seemed a consensus had been reached and we all moved towards the bus stop, Hidan lagging behind and rubbing irritably at his nose. I checked the time on my phone almost once every thirty seconds, until Deidara confiscated it from me on the grounds that I was making him nervous, yeah.

The bus arrived after what felt like an age and we piled on, Kakuzu complaining predictably about the price of a ticket, spreading ourselves out over the few available seats.

"This feels so surreal," I said under my breath as I watched the familiar bus route out of the window.

"I know what you mean," Hinata agreed, "this is not exactly a normal Wednesday afternoon activity."

Sakura laughed at that, "True. But who wants normal?"

"I think normal might be preferable to risk of severe injury," I said, amused by how enthusiastic Sakura seemed to be.

"I dunno. I'm hoping Kin's going to be the one getting severely injured. That could be fun."

I frowned, "You're not going to rush in there stupidly are you?"

"Would I ever?" Sakura turned wide, innocent eyes on me, "Come on Ino, what do you take me for?"

"Someone who can be incredibly determined and unexpectedly violent when she puts her mind to it," I replied, ignoring the puppy-dog look.

"Fine," she huffed, "don't fall for it then."

"Come on, yeah," Deidara got up from where he'd been sitting, in the row behind us, and moved to the door of the bus, "this is our stop, right?"

I hadn't been paying attention, but he was right. Now we just had to walk to the park - which really wasn't as easy as it might sound.

I felt kind of like a teacher on a school trip, walking at the front of the line and then going back to chivvy along the stragglers, then going back to the front to lead the way again, then telling Tobi that no we couldn't stop and buy sweets on the way. Not even sherbert. Not even for less than twenty pence. The closer we got to the park the more tense everyone got, and by the time the playground came into sight we were all talking and laughing too loud for it to be entirely natural.

Kiba was already skulking around by the slide, looking resentful, Akamaru hovering by his feet.

"Everything alright?" I asked anxiously as I got close.

"Not really. I think Kin has Ten Ten."

"Seriously?"

He nodded, kicking at the floor, "I told her about what was happening today and she just nodded, like she already knew, and when I asked if she'd come and stand on our side she looked shifty and said she'd talk later."

"Crap. She would have been an asset, how long has she been training in martial arts?"

"Since she was four or something. Temari wouldn't come either, but she just said she didn't want to get involved. I don't think she's against us."

I did a mental tally; all of the Akatsuki barring Zetsu, Kiba, Sakura, Hinata and me. That was eleven on our side. And Kin could have up to nine, including her. It looked like we weren't going to have the advantage I'd hoped we would.

Especially considering the fact that if she was actively seeking out allies she could have a lot more than that.

I swallowed nervously and turned back to the Akatsuki.

"Okay, we may not outnumber them as much as we might have done, but I don't think we need to worry," not too much. Hopefully.

"I'm not afraid of some egotistical poor-school bitch," Hidan said, looking disturbingly cheerful, "if she has more people with her it just means we get to beat more of them up. Win-fucking-win."

"Great, thanks for that mature and sensible outlook on the situation."

Despite my tone I was actually almost grateful for Hidan's overconfidence. There was something reassuring in his complete certainty, even though I knew it was probably based on arrogance rather than an accurate assessment of the facts.

"Deidara, what's the time?"

He checked my phone, "Almost five to five, hn."

Oh Kami. T minus five minutes and time was still vanishing away. The closer we got the more I wondered if I was making a huge mistake.

"Maybe I should have just let her beat me to a bloody pulp weeks ago," I said, mostly to myself, "then it would have been over already."

"No," Deidara replied firmly, "because then I'd have had to kill her, yeah."

I opened my mouth to reply but stopped with a slight flinch as a raindrop fell, hitting me right on the nose. Seconds later rain was falling pretty steadily and Deidara and I laughed.

"It's real life pathetic fallacy," I said, shaking my head.

"Real life what-now, hm?"

"English literature term, when the weather mirrors the mood."

Deidara just looked at me for a moment, then glanced up at the sky with a thoughtful expression, "You really do have a lot of ways of showing you're nervous, hn."

"And you don't?" I replied with a grin, "You've finished almost every sentence today with a 'hn' or a 'yeah'. Even more so than usual, I mean."

"Can we get moving now?" Kisame asked irritably, before Deidara had a chance to respond to that, "Or do we have to stand around here getting wet until five on the dot?"

"Chill," I started towards the forest, "alright guys, let's go."

Kiba and Akamaru led the way with me this time, since we both knew the way to our shelter. Deidara and Hinata walked next to us, keeping anxious eyes ahead in case of ambushes. Then we came to the clearing and I had to hold back a swear word.

Kin had been recruiting.

She was standing on the torn down remains of our old wooden hideout, Dosu and Zaku on either side. Behind her stood Tayuya, Kidomaru, Sakon, Ukon – how could I have forgotten about him? – Jirobo and Kimimaro. Ten Ten stood a little behind and to the left of that group, looking uncomfortable, and a couple of steps in front of her was the one person I really wasn't expecting to see.

"Sasuke," Sakura breathed from behind me.

What was he doing there?

"Hey Ino," Kin said jauntily, "how's it going? Took you long enough to respond to my messages, I guess you had to wait until you'd talked these guys into following you."

She put a hand on her hip, tilting her head slightly, "I'm glad you did though. My friends here would have been seriously disappointed if you'd come alone."

"Orochimaru got you guys good," I said with pity, "why don't you just give up and go home?"

"Don't you bad-mouth Orochimaru!" Tayuya shouted, "He's a good man! That Pein guy is the one who's been manipulating people."

"Yeah. Whatever."

Her eyes almost popped out of her head with fury, "You come over here and say that to my face you little bitch!"

"Shut it Tayuya," Kin snapped, still looking at me, "Ino's mine. You lot get the guys, I get her, understood?"

"Ten Ten," I said, "what are you doing over there?"

"She's seen you for what you really are," Kin answered for her, "a bitch and a fake. I was there for her when you were busy with your new private school buddies. Sucks to be you."

"Seems I'm not the only one with private school allies," I turned to Sasuke with a raised eyebrow.

"Orochimaru had a word with me," he said coldly, not giving Kin a chance to speak on his behalf, "I have a score to settle with a few of you and he's given me-"

"This is ridiculous," I cut Sasuke off, ignoring his answering scowl, "spare me the dramatic monologue."

Some of the Akatsuki members shifted behind me, hearing the change of tone in my voice. I stepped forwards as I'd discussed with Sakura, away from the protection of my side.

"Kin, let's just talk this out. We don't need to let it become this over the top face-off. What do you think this is, some kind of Hollywood movie?"

Kin stepped forwards too, looking intrigued, "Oh right? You want to do this one-on-one?"

"Sure."

"You know these guys," she jerked her head backwards, indicating her allies, "are here to beat the Akatsuki."

"Orochimaru has lifted us from the hordes of useless bickering teenagers and made us special," Tayuya said with conviction, "you all think you're so important because you have money. We'll show you that we are more than you could ever dream of being."

I somehow stopped myself from turning around to exchange a 'looney-tune in the house' look with Deidara. It was _really_ hard though.

In the meantime, Kin and I were standing less than two feet apart.

"Well now, what was it you wanted to say to me?"

"You're pathetic," I said simply, "get over your silly little grudge and leave me and my friends alone."

"Or what?"

"Or I'll have to make you."

Faster than a striking snake Kin slapped me, hard, right across the face. My head snapped to one side and I turned it straight back to face her again.

"Do it again bitch," I said in a low voice, "see what I do to you."

She brought her hand up again, but this time I was ready. I blocked her arm as it came down, gripping it hard with my left hand as my right reached round to grab her by the back of the neck, bringing her face down to meet my knee with a sickening crunch. I let her go and she reeled backwards, eyes watering.

"You cow," she hissed, "Tayuya!"

Tayuya jumped into action, but as she reached us Kiba was already barreling into her, Akamaru following and barking up a storm, the two of them stopping her from interfering. That, it seemed, was the cue for everyone to get involved. Our numbers were even, there wasn't a single two on one fight, and Kin turned back to me looking furious.

"I'm going to kill you. And I'm going to enjoy it."

I couldn't find it in me to come back with a smart-ass retort, I was completely terrified. She came at me, aiming for a kick, and I jumped backwards to avoid it, almost getting in the way of Sakon and Hidan, who were grappling on the floor and cursing each other with words I can't even think of without flinching.

Kin took advantage of my distraction, grabbing me by the hair and clawing at my face, but it was a rushed move and I ducked, headbutting her rather than trying to pull away to avoid tugging my hair out. Her grip loosened as she staggered back, winded, and I kicked her in the stomach, watching with some satisfaction as she fell on her ass in the dirt.

Then I was knocked over by Jirobo, who'd been tripped backwards by Sasori, and had to roll quickly to avoid being squashed. Clearly an opportunist he briefly abandoned his fight with the Akatsuki member to launch a couple of heavy punches while we were both on the floor, one of which caught me on the side of the head. Because he wasn't standing there wasn't as much power behind it as there would have been, but I was still a little dazed as Sasori reoccupied his attention by stamping on his shin.

Jirobo howled with pain and scrambled to his feet, Sasori danced backwards, keeping out of range of the slower boy, and I held my head in an effort to stop it from spinning. Then I saw Kin standing, swaying slightly but definitely on two feet, and forced myself to get up again. Her nose was bleeding, her face tinged with green and her breathing shallow, but there was still fire in her eyes.

She came at me, pulling her fist back for a punch, and I ducked, hoping to use her momentum against her and throw her. It wasn't a move I'd practiced much though, and instead of going over my lowered shoulder she sort of bounced off, recovering quickly and kicking me in the side. I came back at her with a feinted kick followed by a genuine slap and she somehow managed to catch my arm, wrenching me towards her and punching me in the stomach. That meant it was my turn to be winded, and as I gasped for breath she took my arm, still holding it, and twisted it viciously. I cried out, the agony forcing me to my knees as she continued to twist. I didn't know how far she'd have to go to break my arm, but then she sneered at me and took her other hand, putting it halfway down my already unnaturally bent forearm. I closed my eyes and the following sharp crack was accompanied by a wave of pain that made me want to throw up.

I didn't even feel her let go of my arm, but I was vaguely aware of curling up around it, cradling the strangely angled limb with my other arm and retching into the mud. I was in the fetal position, lying on my side, and Kin kicked me onto my back straddled my waist, putting her hands to my throat.

"You've won," I said hoarsely, "I get it."

"I said I was going to kill you," Kin's voice was dangerous, low and psychotic, "I don't kid around Ino. You're about to die."

"Not funny," I struggled a little, gasping as the movement jostled my arm, and Kin tightened her grip on my neck.

"Seriously, this isn't a joke," I could already feel my supply of air getting less and less, I was struggling to take in each breath, but she just held on tighter.

"Kin," I wheezed, "you don't really want to... kill me."

"That's where you're wrong," she whispered, almost gently, into my ear, "I really, really do."

I felt faint, my vision starting to fade, and the thought came to me, slowly and groggily, that she was completely serious about this. I tried to throw her off, and the pain that created in my broken arm brought me slightly back from the brink of unconsciousness.

I couldn't see. I couldn't speak. I couldn't breathe.

Lungs burning. Head pounding.

Fading.

"Ino!" There was a rush of air and suddenly I felt lighter, the hands were gone and I could breathe again!

I took in a gulp of air, wincing at the pain in my windpipe, and as my vision crept back I saw Deidara punching Kin repeatedly in the face.

"Vicious bitch," he snarled, bringing his fist down again.

"Deidara," I croaked.

He paused, looking over at me, and I saw that increasingly familiar wild look in his eyes.

"I'm fine," yeah, that was clearly true, "you can let her go."

"She tried to kill you, yeah."

"I know. But you don't want to kill her."

"Maybe I do," he snarled, turning back to Kin.

"Yeah, but you don't," I tried to sit up, only to collapse back down with a pathetic cry at the pain in my broken arm. "Please leave her, I need you," I whimpered.

Deidara lifted Kin up by the collar of her shirt and flung her back down, watching in satisfaction as her head rolled limply on her neck and she let out a low groan. Then he stood up and came over, kneeling next to me and looking at my arm. I noticed he had a split lip and his hair had come loose, one side of it matted with mud.

"What did she do?"

"I don't know," I said quietly, "but I can't move."

"Who do you want me to call, hm?" he got my mobile out of his pocket, "Pein? One of your parents?"

"I want my mum," I sniffed, feeling tears escape the corners of my eyes.

"Okay, I'll call her, it's okay, hn," he dialed the number, holding the phone to his ear while it rang.

"Who were you fighting?" I asked, "How did you get over here?"

"Kimimaro," he said, "He- oh, hello? No, this is Deidara, yeah. We're at the forest and- shit."

Kiba had just kicked Ukon, who had stumbled backwards and tripped over Akamaru, and was now careering towards us. Deidara stood up quickly, elbowing Ukon aside before he could fall on me, then went back to the phone.

"Sorry, things are chaotic here. Ino's badly hurt and we ne... yes... no, I haven't called the hospital yet, hn... yes I... no, it's not, you think I'll just," a flash of anger passed across Deidara's face before he closed his eyes, controlling himself. "Okay... Okay, fine. Good, so we'll meet you... right. Bye."

He hung up and knelt back down, "She'll pick you up at the playground, yeah."

I nodded, still holding my arm awkwardly across my chest.

"I'm sorry I didn't get there sooner."

"It's fine. You were busy. You were telling me how you got away from Kimimaro?"

"That's right. I noticed Kin was strangling you and I tried to go over, but Kimimaro was still attacking. But he noticed I was distracted and then he looked over at Kin, hn. Then he just stepped back and said 'Kin doesn't know when to stop', which I took as him telling me to go ahead and stop her."

I closed my eyes, biting my lip against the waves of pain, "He's a nice person I think, underneath the Kin alliance thing," I was aware that I wasn't at my most eloquent, but I couldn't find it in myself to care, "he believes in fair fights."

"Hm."

I sensed Deidara wasn't too impressed, and catching him looking at Kin with narrowed eyes I tried to think of something that would keep him occupied.

"What's going on with the others?"

Deidara glanced around to get a more recent picture of events, filling me in in a low voice. "Well, with Kin out, Kimimaro gone and Ten Ten vanished we're outnumbering them again. Just about. Looks like Kiba's close to beating the white haired twin, he's taking longer and longer to get up when he's knocked down. Sasori and the fat one are still going at it, yeah. Hidan seems to have the upper hand on the other twin, but it's hard to say. Hinata's struggling against that girl who was raving about Orochimaru earlier, but Sakura will probably help out with that soon because she's almost finished the guy she's fighting. Kisame's doing fine. Itachi's fighting Sasuke and looks like he's winning fairly easily, he's holding back quite a lot though. Tobi's fighting too far away for me to tell how he's doing and Kakuzu looks like he's resting, hn."

I laughed weakly, "I guess we're winning overall then."

"I guess so."

"When do we need to go meet mum?"

"Soon. I'm just trying to figure out how we can move you without hurting your arm, yeah."

"I don't think that's going to be possible," I grimaced.

"Hold it as still as you can," Deidara slipped one arm under my shoulders and the other under my knees and stood, lifting me as he did.

My arm jarred harshly at first and I sucked in a breath but once we were moving it subsided to more of a sharp ache than a constant feeling of being repeatedly stabbed in the arm with a bread knife.

"Is this okay, hm?"

"Yeah."

"Now we just have to get through these guys."

Deidara had to skirt round Hidan and Sakon and then stop for a moment as Sasori's evasive maneuvers took him right across our path, followed by a sweating and tired Jirobo still swinging his fists.

"Where are you going?" Kiba appeared at Deidara's elbow, breathing heavily and limping a little. Deidara nodded at me and Kiba's eyes widened as he took in my crooked arm and bruised neck.

"What happened?"

"Kin," I said with a scowl, "she's more psycho than I ever dreamed. I think her face is broken though."

Deidara started walking again and Kiba came along too, Akamaru running around us in wide circles as if he was trying to herd us to safety.

"Where are we going? Back to the playground?"

I nodded and Deidara elaborated, "We're meeting Ino's mum there."

"Your mum?" Kiba sounded confused, "Are you going back to her?"

"I don't know," I knew better than to try to shrug, "I just... I wanted to see her. I'm going to need to get a cast on this anyway, so we're probably going to the hospital."

The rain hadn't really been able to get through the canopy of leaves, but as soon as we were out from under the trees we found ourselves in the middle of a downpour. We weren't ten paces from the forest before we were all soaked to the skin, and the rain was heavy enough that it was quite difficult to see through.

Eventually though we could make out the shape of a car and Deidara sped up slightly. We got to the passenger door and the window rolled down, mum's face becoming visible. She paled significantly when she saw the state I was in.

She reached across and opened the passenger door, "Put her in."

Deidara had to kneel down in the wet grass to get me into the car, and I clung awkwardly to his shirt with my good hand. "Don't leave me," I pleaded.

"Deidara," mum's tone was hard.

"I'm really sorry, yeah," he gently tugged my hand free and swung the car door closed. Mum pulled away from the side of the road, driving towards the hospital.

I let my head fall against the window and just cried.

Mum looked over, an expression of horror on her face when she saw my injury again. "What happened to your arm?"

"Why wouldn't you let him come with me?" I sobbed, still leaning against the window.

"How did that happen?"

"I want Deidara."

"Did somebody do that to you on purpose?"

"I don't want to be on my own."

"You're not on your own," mum looked unnecessarily alarmed, as if she thought I might be hallucinating or something, "I'm here."

"Stop worrying so much about the hows and the whys," I said, still dripping like a leaky tap, "it happened, it hurts like a_ bitch_ and I want my boyfriend. Why wouldn't you let him come?"

"I don't know," she said tiredly, "I don't suppose I can do anything right. I just blamed him and thought you'd probably be better off if I took you on your own to sort out whatever had happened."

"It was the same girl who hurt me at my party," I replied, pausing to take in a shuddering breath, "we set up a meeting to sort things out and it degenerated into a massive fight. Eleven on each side. She broke my arm and tried to strangle me. Deidara saved me."

Mum was silent.

"It's okay. I understand how you could have leaped to the completely wrong conclusion. I don't blame you for being totally ignorant of what Deidara is actually like."

She shot me a sideways glance, "No need to be sarcastic."

"I'm not. Not really. It's my fault too, I guess. I should have worked harder to make you understand, and you should have worked harder to listen."

We didn't say any more to each other until we got to the hospital.

/\/\/\/\

The break was serious enough that I needed surgery, the doctors had to put pins in my arm because the bone was in pieces, and after that I had to have a splint because the swelling was too bad for a cast. By that evening I was settled in a hospital bed, feeling a slight sense of deja vu.

The doctor said I had to stay at the hospital until the swelling had gone down enough to put a cast on, and the first thing I asked mum to do was call dad.

"You want him here?" She looked like someone had just asked her to eat glass. And people call teenagers overdramatic!

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Because I might be living with him after I get out of here."

Mum looked perplexed, "Aren't you coming back to live at home?"

"First of all, my home at the moment is Pein's house. Second of all, there is a chance I might go back and live with you, I haven't decided yet. Third, dad offered to have me at his house and I need to think about it before I make up my mind for sure either way. I know I'm not going to go on living with Pein forever, much as I wish that was an option. It's not fair on him."

She sat down next to my bed. "Ino, please, I know you're angry with me and I'm so sorry. I'm sorry I never seem to be able to be the way you need me to be, I'm sorry we don't see eye to eye most of the time, but please, you're my daughter, I want you to live with me. I love you."

I closed my eyes wearily, "I'm not mad at you anymore, I love you too. I still want you to call dad though."

She nodded a little tearfully and went off down the hall to call my father. Almost as soon as she was gone my room was invaded by a group of five overexcited teens. Well, four overexcited teens and one teen who was as stoic as usual.

"Deidara!" I gasped, sitting up. He came over, putting his arms around me carefully.

"We've been waiting down the hall for about an hour," Kiba said, grinning, "we wanted to be able to say hi without your mum here."

"How are you feeling?" Sakura came over to look at my arm, running her hands gently over the splint.

"It hurts, event though they've been giving me morphine," I frowned up at the clear bag that was dripping into the needle in the back of my hand. "Maybe I'm resistant to it or something. How did everything go once I'd left?"

"Kiba and I went back to help out," Deidara said, sitting on the bed next to me, "a couple of them had chickened out and run off-"

"Dosu and Zaku," Kiba provided with some glee.

"So we outnumbered them by quite a few, yeah. We mopped up the rest of them pretty easily after that."

"Kin's face was a mess," Hinata added with a shudder.

"It was disgusting," Kiba confirmed.

"Oh," mum had appeared back in the doorway and was looking at my five visitors. Sasori smiled calmly at her.

"A pleasure to meet you Ms Yamanaka. We wanted to see how Ino was feeling. I hope we're not causing too much inconvenience?"

"Um, no. Not at all," she sat down in the visitors chair next to the bed and watched with a peculiar expression as we went back to our conversation.

"Did you just leave them all there?" I asked.

"Nah," Kiba shook his head firmly.

"I called Pein," Sasori said, "he said he would pass on a message to Orochimaru and make arrangements."

"Most of them were still able to walk," Sakura put in cheerfully.

"Most of them?"

"Kin wasn't doing a lot of moving," she acknowledged with a wholly inappropriate giggle.

"That was your fault!" I said, nudging Deidara in the ribs with my unharmed elbow.

"I'm sorry, were you enjoying being strangled, hm?" he asked sarcastically, "Should I have left you to it?"

"You didn't need to be quite so... enthusiastic about it."

"Hardly my fault, hn," he replied, waving a hand dismissively, "she should have known better than to hurt you."

"What's your plan after this?" Kiba asked after a brief silence, looking between mum and me.

"I'm not sure," I said thoughtfully, "I'll be here for a couple of days I think. Then I'll probably move in with one of my parents."

"One of your parents? Does that include me as a possibility?" I looked up at dad, who had just poked his head round the door and was looking surprised.

"Yes it does," I confirmed, enjoying the way his face lit up.

"Hello Inoichi," mum said, her tone reserved.

"Hey," dad said casually, coming all the way in to perch on the end of my bed. "How are you, Ino?"

"I've been better," I said dryly, indicating my arm, "you should have seen the way this was bent a few hours ago. Horror-movie-gross."

"I hope you took some pictures."

"Damn," I laughed, "I should have thought of that."

A nurse came in then, blanching at the number of people in the small room.

"I'm sorry," she said sternly, "there should only be three visitors at a time in here. And in fact, visiting hours are ending in twenty minutes."

"We should probably go," Kiba said, standing and stretching, "school in the morning and all."

"Okay," I snuggled against Deidara, giving him a one-armed hug. "I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Of course, yeah," he pecked me on the forehead and stood up, "try to get some sleep."

"You too."

I said goodbye to the others and the five of them left, their voices audible all the way down the corridor. Once they'd passed through the doors and I couldn't hear them anymore I turned to my parents, both watching me.

I took a deep breath in. I knew who I wanted to live with, now I just had to make sure I said it in a way that didn't hurt anyone's feelings.

"Right you two," I started, "you're both my parents, and I love you both. As far as I'm concerned, neither of you is a better parent, you both have your strengths and weaknesses."

I closed my eyes, thinking back over the past few months.

"Dad, I don't really know you. I've spent years not even hearing from you. I've lived with mum for almost as long as I can remember and for the vast majority of that time I've been a brat. It's only recently that I've started to actually talk to her, tried to reach compromises and understand where she's coming from."

I looked at mum then, "Mum, I'm really sorry for all the time I spent punishing you. I think since moving to Konoha High I've finally been able to get to know you. We've come to a sort of understanding about who we both are and I do genuinely think we're friends."

Was I making the right choice? I nibbled on the corner of my lip, wondering if I wasn't making a mistake.

But then I remembered how I'd felt looking into that room. I hadn't been able to put my finger on it then, but the strange emotion that had left me so confused was, in hindsight, remarkably clear. Belonging.

"I reckon it's time I gave dad the same chance. I'm going to move in with him after they put the cast on and let me go," I turned to dad, "that is, if it's still okay with you?"

"More than okay," he said faintly, looking shocked, "are you sure that's what you want?"

"I want to know my dad," I said, smiling, "I think living with you is going to be the best way of achieving that."

I looked at mum, "I'm sorry. It's not that I don't love you and it's not that I'm angry with you still, it's just-"

She shook her head, "It's fine Ino. I understand."

There was a hint of sadness in her tone, and confusion too, but she seemed to see where I was coming from.

"Maybe I can come stay sometimes?"

"I'd like that."

"Great," I grinned, "dad, I'll leave you in charge of picking my stuff up from Pein's. You'll have to get my room ready for me."

"Your room," he said wonderingly, "absolutely, I'll get right on it."

I lay back in bed, closing my eyes. Maybe the morphine was beginning to work after all, the pain in my arm seemed to have dulled slightly.

"I think I'm going to sleep now," I said indistinctly.

"Good idea," one of my parents said.

"We'll see you in the morning," the other one added.

Perhaps I was a miracle worker: they were in the same room, part of the same conversation even, and they weren't arguing. I didn't get much chance to enjoy my success though. I'd drifted off to sleep before I could even say goodnight.


	50. Epilogue

_**:O Yup, that's it. The end. Nothing more to see here... Well, except for this SUPER-SPECIAL-AWESOME-EPILOGUE! Okay, it's not that amazing, but I couldn't just abandon the story without giving you all some idea of what happened afterwards.**_

**Study In Contrasts**

**Epilogue  
**

That's pretty much the end. Not of my story, I'm still alive aren't I? No, just the dramatic part. I guess you want to know what happened next though? Well, I can fill in some of the blanks.

I spent two days in hospital, after which they finally put a cast on my arm and sent me on my merry way. Deidara picked me up from the hospital and drove me back to my dad's place, where I found he'd already unpacked all my stuff for me. The next day we had a sort of housewarming party, where Hidan and Kakuzu both got a little too drunk and spent about two hours over-exaggerating everything that had happened in the forest.

"I was taking on two of these fucking huge guys," Hidan slurred, standing up on the sofa arm to get people's attention.

"No you weren't," Kakuzu scoffed, "you were against that little weedy guy with the white hair. I was fighting Kidomaru. He was tough. He was so fast he was practically invisible, but I took him out in twenty seconds-"

"Bull_shit_ you took him out in less than five minutes! You were struggling away like an old man while I-"

"While you rolled around on the floor with your new friend. Were you two fighting or making out?"

"I'm not fucking gay!"

And so it continued. In the end Kiba and Zetsu had to take the two outside and get them to calm down before they broke anything.

I found out a week or so later from Kiba that Kin looked worse than Frankenstein's monster when she eventually went back to school, which I tried not to take too much pleasure in. Deidara didn't have any such qualms, when I told him the news he laughed out loud and got a reluctant high-five out of Sasori.

The next important event came the next weekend, when Deidara went to spend it in Iwa with his mother. He didn't really want to go, but Sasori and I persuaded him that he should keep trying to build some kind of relationship with her and eventually he gave in. His phone didn't work abroad and dad didn't have a computer, so he sent emails which I had to pick up by going round to Sakura's house, limiting our conversations a little. Although there was something quite nice about it, like getting a letter.

He arrived back on Monday afternoon, having missed a day of school, and I met him at the airport. It was like one of those film scenes – he came through the doors with his luggage and spotted me instantly, sauntering over and grinning like the cat that got the cream as he swept me into a kiss. Because he's smooth like that.

I saw through it though, and I could tell by the subtle edge to his voice on the way back and the way he glanced back at the airport that the trip hadn't gone well.

We talked about it a little that night.

"She did that thing again, where she tries to guilt trip me into staying with her, hn."

"How?"

"She just talks about how lonely she gets out there, how she hates missing so much of my life, how great the schools are there and would I like to have a look round one, hm? And then she goes back to how empty the house will feel when I go away again."

We were in my room at dad's and Deidara was pacing up and down while I sat on the bed.

"Come here," I patted the duvet and he came over, being careful of my cast as he sat next to me.

"Sorry. All I've done since I got back was bitch about Iwa. How have you been?"

I shook my head, "I want to hear about this."

Deidara smiled and kissed the end of my nose, "You know, I think it's enough for me that you care. And the fact that you knew that I was upset, yeah."

"It's not difficult, I know you pretty well now."

"Sometimes I feel like," he hesitated and I looked at him, curious. "well, like we're kind of on the same wavelength. It's like, sometimes you'll notice something about me that even Sasori wouldn't, and I know when you're unhappy before even Kiba has had a chance to ask you what's wrong. Maybe that just sounds stupid though, hn."

"No, I know exactly what you mean," I leaned my head against his shoulder and grinned to myself.

He was right though, over the time we'd been together we'd slowly tuned into each other, and we read each other better than anyone else. I'll tell you where that came in handy most: stopping Deidara from losing his temper.

I knew the second he started to slip, and he knew the second I knew. Usually that was enough to bring him back. Usually. When it wasn't, I tended to just back off and leave him to calm down. Or point him in the direction of the nearest stress reliever, which often happened to be Hidan. The great thing about it was that this increased awareness meant we could be much more affectionate with each other again. Which was fun.

Kiba and Hinata stayed together, spending most of their free time with each other. I didn't see either of them as much as I used to, and at times that did make me really sad. I missed my best friends. But Kiba took me aside one day and gave me a bit of a talking to.

"Look, I know you feel like we're moving apart, but I promise you we're not. Not in the way that matters."

"I don't see you anymore though!" I said, allowing myself this one moment to be selfishly honest (or honestly selfish, depending on how you want to look at it). "You and Hinata are always together and I don't get to hang out with either of you."

"You spend all your free time with Deidara! I'd never see you anyway!" I scowled at that and he laughed, "It's not a revenge thing, it's just the way it goes. Listen to me: we're still best friends. Okay, so maybe I won't be the first person you call when something big happens. And maybe you're not my first port of call when Hana's being an overprotective cow. But we'll still tell each other everything eventually, and we're still way up there on each others' list of favourite people, and we can always always count on each other to be there if we need to be. Got that Ini?"

I threw my arms around him. "Yeah, I got it."

As time went by I settled into life at dad's. He and I were almost spookily alike in some ways, such as our favourite foods, but complete opposites in others, like our opinions on sports, but learning all of that was fun. Sometimes he drove me up the wall and I had to stay at Pein's for the night to avoid accidentally-on-purpose committing patricide, but that became less and less frequent, until I mostly stayed at Pein's to spend extra time with Deidara.

I visited mum occasionally too, and while it took a little while for her to get over the fact that I'd chosen not to live with her, once she was okay with that we sort of managed to pick up where we left off. I stayed with her sometimes too, although not as often because she tended to start trying to lay down the law as soon as I was there for more than four hours. I think she's just a natural parent, she can't help herself from making rules and setting boundaries.

I met her boyfriend too, turns out that's another mystery solved. He works at Konoha High, that's how she got so much taken off the fees despite my less than exemplary academic record. Convenient. He's fairly nice, a little boring in my honest opinion, but we get along fine when he comes round for dinner while I'm at mum's.

Eventually I fell into a sort of pattern where I stayed with mum every other Monday night and spent most Friday nights with Deidara at Pein's place, and dad took the opportunity to invite whatever girl he was seeing at the time back to the flat without his daughter getting in the way. That way everybody won.

Except for the girls I guess, since he usually dumped them after a couple of weeks. My father the commitment-phobe.

Ten Ten hasn't spoken to me since she ran away from the fight that day, but I like to think she sort of sees my side. I know she broke up with Lee, I found him sobbing in the corner of the common room one Thursday afternoon, but he recovered after a couple of weeks and started going after Sakura. Which she found incredibly scary and led to her spending about a month trying to hide from him, but that's another story.

Temari called me to say 'get well soon' and we tentatively organized a girly sleepover, which was highly uncomfortable and hasn't been repeated. We have however hung out a few times as a group with her and Shikamaru, Choji, Naruto, Sakura, me and Deidara, which works much better.

Sakura became happier and healthier and generally seemed to get over Sasuke very effectively. She and I got closer again, spending more time together in and out of school, and we've actually been to a few of the clubs I used to visit with Kin and that lot. I'll tell you something, for a private school girl Sakura can be quite the party animal!

As for Sasuke himself, he still went to our school, but he sort of sulked in the shadows rather than taking part and he didn't sit with us at lunch anymore. Sakura thought he was probably hoping to use the fight in the forest to prove himself to be superior to Itachi and possibly to get back at her for leaving him, but since he didn't even manage to come close to beating his older brother he ended up feeling even more inadequate than before.

She felt sorry for him, I thought the whole thing was kind of funny, neither of us bothered to spend long thinking about it.

Now it's summer, or getting that way, and we're all revising like crazy for our A level exams. Dad got me a Spanish tutor to help me improve my speaking skills and I'm starting to think I might want to go to Spain on holiday with some friends and test it out for real.

I've had a few study sessions in the library with a hybrid group of Akatsuki members and my other friends and so far the only disaster was Hidan getting chucked out less than ten minutes after walking in. What a surprise.

I think that's pretty much everything. What else do you want to know?

I'm happy living with my dad, I'm happy with my friends, I'm happy with Deidara.

I'm not stupid or naive enough to think that any of it is going to last forever. I don't think I'll necessarily still be best friends with Sakura when I'm thirty, although I'd like to think it's a possibility, and I certainly don't think I'm going to grow up and marry Deidara. He's just the first guy I've ever fallen in love with.

But I'm liking the way things are at the moment, and I'm more than happy for everything to stay the way it is for the time being. Does that kind of answer your question?

Fin

* * *

_**Normally I never put two author's notes in a chapter *shudder* but I think this is a special case. It being the end and all.**_

_**It's been a long time coming, and I'm sorry (again) for the many delays. Thank you to all the people who stuck with it, thank you to everyone who ever reviewed, thank you to the people who were encouraging and thank you to the people who said my Ino was the most irritating character they'd ever seen - every comment made me want to keep working to improve. Some reviewers deserve special thanks for their persistence, namely Aiko of the Akatsuki, deathrosekitty and Miss Hydrangea (for consistent support) and demon lilith and Nutella's Biggest Fan for hanging in there right to the bitter end! Masses of appreciation are owed to my little brother, who read every single chapter and berated me every time I wrote a sad one. David, I'm glad the ending has your approval!**_

_**Well that's it, really truly this time. Just a final thank you, to anyone and everyone who read even a chapter, and to anyone who's still reading now. Hope you enjoyed!  
**_


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